Author: Thefirstdefier; J. F. Brink
Date: 2023-04-24T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Science Fiction
Description: Chaos is descending on the City of Ancients. The Twilight Ascent is coming to a boil. The Eveningtide Asura's plans are nearing fruition, while powerful factions try to block his ascent. The survival of Twilight Harbor and its citizens depends on who's victorious. Zac finds himself tied to the asura's chariot, but that's only one of his problems. Uona Noz'Valadir has stolen the Splinter of Oblivion, leaving Zac with a ticking time bomb of Creation in his body. A trap has been set within the City of Ancients, but Zac has no choice but to enter the belly of the beast. A final battle awaits, and

DEFIANCE OF THE FALL 9

©2023 JF BRINK/THEFIRSTDEFIER

This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Any reproduction or unauthorized use of the material or artwork contained herein is prohibited without the express written permission of the authors.

Aethon Books supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact editor@aethonbooks.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

Aethon Books
www.aethonbooks.com

Print and eBook formatting by Steve Beaulieu. Artwork provided by Fernando Granea.

Published by Aethon Books LLC.

Aethon Books is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead is coincidental.

All rights reserved.

CONTENTS

ALSO IN SERIES

1. Blood and Soul

2. Gathering at the Gates

3. Incursion Owner

4. Depths of Madness

5. The Rules of Madness

6. Sneaking Inside

7. Out of Time, Out of Options

8. Madness Made Real

9. Web of Ancient Madness

10. A Seed of Fear

11. Overwhelmed

12. Overextended

13. Ripples on the Lake

14. Greed and Chaos

15. A Little Bit of Chaos

16. Company

17. Marvelous Beyond Compare

18. Linked

19. The Trove of the Ocean

20. One Shot at Eternity

21. Collapse

22. Fertilizer for One’s Path

23. Rip and Tear

24. Stronger

25. Trapped

26. Doubts and Schemes

27. The Final Twilight

28. Leviathan

29. Orom

30. Experience

31. Freedom’s End

32. Unboxing

33. The Pursuit of Completeness

34. A Thought to Change the World

35. The First Clue

36. Depths of Death

37. Perfection

38. Singular Unity

39. Dao Manifested into Law

40. Journey

41. Waking Up

42. Ancient Dread

43. Darkness Perfected

44. Adamance

45. Cat and Mouse

46. Hubris

47. Opportunity

48. Entangled

49. Formation and Integration

50. Technique

51. Mastery

52. Vivi

53. Shadewar

54. Raising the Stakes

55. Transition

56. Bargain Hunting

57. Gunking Up

58. Celestial Clay

59. Calamity

60. Kalpataru

61. Culmination

62. Path of Oblivion

63. Harmony

64. Heart of the Empire

65. Words Spoken from the Heart

66. True and False

67. Sublimation

68. Gathering Storm

69. Mounting Threat

70. Little Chaos

71. Ripples in his Wake

Epilogue

Thank you for reading Defiance of the Fall Book Nine

ALSO IN SERIES

DEFIANCE OF THE FALL

BOOK ONE

BOOK TWO

BOOK THREE

BOOK FOUR

BOOK FIVE

BOOK SIX

BOOK SEVEN

BOOK EIGHT

BOOK NINE

BOOK TEN

1

BLOOD AND SOUL

Zac stood in the cave at the bottom of the chasm in the Twilight Ocean, the remnant waves of Oblivion still raging outside. This was supposed to be it, where he got the Splinter of Oblivion and finished his adventure in Twilight Harbor. He should have known by now things rarely went according to plan. The splinter was gone, stolen by that vindictive vampire, who had set herself up as the gatekeeper to his quest.

There was no backing down now. He’d already collected his reward when the System saved him from the terrifying snake in the depths of the Twilight Chasm. If he didn't seize the splinter and provide another Chaos Pattern, the System would confiscate one of his Daos.

Certainly, Uona had well and truly pissed him off this time, and Zac didn't need much prodding to walk into the lair of the beast.

With nothing else of interest in the hollowed-out mountain, Zac set out the same way he came. Uona’s invitation might be a misdirect, and it was possible that an insane bloodsucker was bearing down on his position at this very moment. If so, he would rather fight somewhere else than in this restrictive place.

Zac emerged at the top of the ravine a few minutes later and crushed an escape talisman. The moment he reappeared, he turned into his wraith form and flitted away with [Abyssal Phase], not forgetting to make use of the slowed-down environment to search for threats.

However, there was no blood tide crashing toward him and no other signs of a trap waiting to be sprung. It really looked like she wanted him to head to the City of Ancients. Zac was just about to return to his normal form, but an odd flickering of light far in the distance caught his attention. He changed course and rushed over to the small hill he spotted.

Zac wouldn’t have normally cared about some random glimmer, since there was an endless number of herbs and materials that gave off some light after gaining spirituality. The expansive reef by the Twilight Chasm had almost looked like a rave, for example, without any of the corals being of much value.

This was different—he actually recognized the energy—it wasn’t Twilight, but rather the power of stars.

Zac turned back into his corporeal form and swam over until he was in front of the source of the anomaly. It could have easily been mistaken for a couple of fireflies dancing upon a random rock, but it was small stars that winked in and out of existence. He scanned it over and over, and there was no doubt.

He’d been sitting in the first row when Ventus, the scion of the Radiant Temple, had formed his Dao Branch. How could Zac possibly mistake the elf's Dao for something else?

The question was why there was a small mote of his Dao on this desolate stretch of land in the middle of nowhere. Ventus was a Numerologist from a B-grade faction, making Zac believe there was a deeper purpose. Most likely, the elf somehow managed to calculate that Zac would pass by this area and left this marker here to be found.

Whether Ventus left this thing for “Zac Piker” or “Arcaz Black,” he had no way of knowing. Could he have calculated the two were one and the same? Zac doubted it. He didn’t have any proof, though he was somewhat certain his mother’s array contained anti-divination capabilities. Otherwise, it would be useless in preventing others from finding out his secret.

Whichever of his identities this mark was left for, Zac’s instincts told him it wasn’t a trap. Even then, he summoned the three pygmy skeletons of [Profane Exponents], and even started charging up [Pillar of Desolation], as he moved his hand toward the shimmering starlight.

Almost like a mirror cracked, a small area on top of the stone shifted, and the starlight was suddenly replaced by a small box. Zac opened it, which prompted a recording to start playing as a hologram of the annoyingly handsome elf was conjured by shimmering starlight.

“Greetings, Mr. Black. You do not know me, but I hope you’ll trust me when I say our fate is connected. I am Ventus Kalavan, Starseeker of the Radiant Temple. By the time you see this, I will have been captured by Ykrodas Havarok in his efforts to enforce his will on this trial.

“I am not asking for you to save me. I am simply bringing a word of warning in hopes you will reciprocate in the future. I spent a decade of my lifespan to calculate some major events in this trial, and if you’re seeing this particular message, you have failed in whatever mission brought you to the Twilight Ocean.

“Do not worry, calculating the details of your mission is far beyond my abilities. It is related to Chaos, making any divination unreliable at best. But I do believe you are heading toward the City of Ancients in hopes of resolving your matters.

“My gift to you is divulging the true nature of the City of Ancients. As you probably know, this realm is not a natural formation of nature. It is the result of realms of opposing elements colliding, resulting in this odd ocean. What you might not know, is that these two ancient worlds both had a spiritual will, and these wills survive to this day. One of them is hiding in the heart of the City of Ancients.

“The Realm Spirits are weak and susceptible to sabotage by this point. The faction that manages to decide the fate of this spirit will have a leg up on the events that follow. The Eidolon is planning to either turn it into a soul slave or replace it with a spirit of their own, and the Eternal Clan should have a similar goal.

“The Havarok wants the spirit to live on for a while longer, and I think you can figure out the goal of the Radiant Temple yourself. I do not know exactly what will await within the gates of the City of Ancients, but the stars warn me of a cage of soul and blood. This is the limit of what I can calculate at this juncture. I hope we will meet again.”

Zac thoughtfully looked at the small box for a moment, then crushed it and flashed away. The moment he reappeared, he applied another round of Karma-breaking powder across his body. Although the message left by the Numerologist was extremely helpful, it was extremely discomforting that he’d been read to the point that Ventus managed to place a communication crystal like that.

Soon enough, he set off in his vessel, heading straight for the City of Ancients. The information Ventus shared didn’t change his goal, but it had given him a better idea of the situation. He didn’t know exactly what a Realm Spirit was, but he guessed it was something similar to a Tool Spirit.

It wasn’t hard to connect the dots from there. If there was a spirit having some sort of control over this Mystic Realm, it would probably affect the Eveningtide Asura’s plans. Meanwhile, it sounded like the undead factions wanted to turn the Realm Spirit into a back door to snatch the opportunity for ascension.

The struggle over the Realm Spirit’s fate was of no concern to Zac, and yet, he had a feeling he would be dragged into it whether he liked it or not. And from what he’d gathered, it sounded like the best option was if the spirit survived, allowing it to run interference on Alvod. He sighed with exhaustion as he looked at the state of his body.

Thankfully, he had only been forced to activate a single Annihilation Sphere to break into the heart of the ravine, and the single set of cracks was fast being eroded by the Creation Energy in his body. Zac had hoped to have managed to form an equilibrium by now with the help of the second splinter, which was impossible in the short run.

At least the brush with Oblivion had somewhat calmed the Shard of Creation for the time being—it was currently sitting motionless in his Mental Energy cage. But that didn’t mean it’d been subdued or had given up. The shard was still agitated, though more in the sense of a cornered beast preparing to pounce.

Its demeanor was completely different from how the shards acted in all those visions. The shard holders had all met a miserable end, but they didn’t seem as pressured as he was. It was more of a slow grinding down, where thoughts of desires were fulfilled, except in a way that brought unintended, and often horrible, consequences.

His situation wasn’t just a matter of completing his quest any longer. If he didn’t manage to regain equilibrium within a few months, something bad would happen. The shard kept gaining energy out of nowhere to continue its assault, while he was constantly expending Mental Energy to resist.

The best theory he could come up with was that the new shard kept acting out because it failed to merge with the one locked in his cage. He’d already passed the “calamity” by surviving the outbursts and wresting control, but the process was only half-finished. At the same time, he didn’t dare let the second shard into his cage and cause an imbalance.

As precarious as the situation was, Zac had a feeling it could get exponentially worse if he opened the cage before having collected the splinter. For now, he was stuck in this weird state of limbo—as half a calamity on two legs. Hopefully, Catheya would have some answers for him soon enough.

Two weeks passed, at which point he felt a sudden change in one of his talismans, prompting him to take out a communication crystal and infuse some Miasma.

“Mr. Chaos,” Zac said with a modified voice through the crystal, a small smile spreading across his face.

“Blue Lily,” an unrecognizable voice responded, confirming that it was Catheya on the other side. “How did it go? Is it done?”

“I got your message.” Zac sighed. “It failed; it was like you expected.”

“Can you meet up?” Catheya asked.

“I’m on my way.” Zac cut the connection.

Not far from here, hundreds of thousands of warriors had gathered, and it was impossible to know what kind of capabilities they possessed. Just like bugging telephone lines was possible back on old Earth, it was apparently possible for inscription masters to lock onto the communication crystals of others. They might even be able to use the signals to pinpoint the speakers.

That was why they disguised their voices and didn’t go into any details. Some things could only be discussed in person. Even if someone managed to listen in, their conversation wouldn’t warrant any additional attention. With so many people and groups gathered in one place, there were bound to be tens of thousands of schemes taking place at any given time. Why waste time on a random one with no hints of there being a payoff? Especially when he’d mentioned the operation was a failure.

Zac reached the spot his tracker indicated, this time a small glade in a forest of dense reeds almost two weeks’ travel from the City of Ancients. No doubt because it would be risky setting up a camp any closer. A hole appeared in the ground, and Zac jumped inside.

A moment later, Zac, Catheya, Qirai, and Varo sat together like they had a few months ago. The atmosphere was more subdued, with Zac’s plans having gone awry.

“What happened?” Catheya sighed, swirling a small glass filled with a blue flower wine.

“Uona figured out my goal. She’s stolen the item in the ravine and even left a message, forcing me to enter the City of Ancients,” Zac mumbled with some distraction—his shard started waking up after weeks of inactivity.

“Well, the road of cultivation is full of setbacks. This chance might have passed, but new ones will come,” Catheya said. “Are you ready to leave this trial?”

“I can’t. If I leave without that item, I’ll probably die.”

“WHAT!” Catheya shouted, dropping her glass. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Not only that,” Zac grunted, “without it, I won’t be able to contact your ancestor.”

“Never mind that,” Catheya said with exasperation. “You should have told me the ravine was that important to you. I might have been able to distract that witch for a while.”

“I’d hoped things would work out somehow… Guess I was a bit optimistic. Anyway, I’m heading to the City of Ancients.”

“Wait, take a breath and calm down. You know how powerful she is. We need a plan!” Catheya hurriedly said.

“Don’t worry, this isn’t your fight, and I won’t try to implicate your clan. Besides, I have my methods. It’s not like all hope is lost. I almost killed her last time, and this time, I have the means to finish the job,” Zac said with a weak smile.

“How could you possibly—Wait…” Catheya muttered, seeming to realize something. “Like that time?”

Zac didn’t exactly know what she was talking about, but guessed she might be referring to when he’d raged out at the Zethaya Pill House. He didn’t have time to answer, as a surge began building in his mind. His eyes widened in alarm.

“Watch out!” Zac roared as he rushed toward the exit, his breath turning into opalescent gas full of Creation. “Get away from me!”

Catheya caught on quickly, and layers and layers of ice enclosed her, along with her entourage, just as Zac pushed his hands into the wall. He needed to contain it. He couldn’t let it spread and hurt the others. Zac furiously imposed his will on the storm of Creation that erupted, pushing it all into the stone.

For a second, a huge chunk of the wall turned into an empty hall full of a dozen statues depicting those he’d met inside the trial, each made out of different materials. The next moment, the chamber turned into a confusing maze of bronze.

Zac strained his mind and imagination to the limit as he cycled over a dozen scenes in an instant, each transformation exhausting some of the energy and preventing it from ballooning out of control. It took just two seconds, but Zac slumped to the ground with a throbbing headache and shaky hands when all was done, leaving a wall of Memorysteel behind.

“What… was that?” Catheya asked with a shuddering breath before she emerged from her protection, repeatedly sniffing the air. “This smell…”

Zac smiled weakly, getting back on his feet and sat down. “It’s safe now. For a while, at least.”

“Is it really safe?” Qirai asked with a frown as she stepped in front of her master while Varo glared daggers at Zac from the side. “Are you safe?”

“A side effect from my mission,” Zac grunted. “As soon as I get what I need from Uona, it will be fixed. For now, I’m a bit volatile. Sorry, I thought I had it under control.”

Of course, he wasn’t quite as optimistic as he tried to let on. Getting his hands on the splinter was nowhere near as straightforward as he would like. Certainly, he’d almost managed to kill Uona last time with a simple Annihilation Sphere, and this time he was armed with a fully charged Shard of Creation.

But at the same time, she was now ready for him to use that kind of attack, and had probably spent a full year figuring out a counter.

His best chance was to create an opening with the help of the unpredictable nature of Creation. She was likely expecting a ball of Oblivion, which meant he needed to attack her with the opposite. He had to make that count.

“Is there nothing you won’t blow up?” Catheya cursed and thumped down on her chair. “We haven’t even covered how you managed to cause a volcano to erupt. Are you allergic to some peace and quiet!”

Zac could only weakly smile, not sure how to respond.

“Well, we’re still going,” Catheya said after taking a few calming breaths. “We might not be able to help you in a direct conflict, but we can help you gather intelligence and provide ancillary support. Besides, we’ve stayed by the City of Ancients for over a month now. You will save a lot of effort having us around.”

“Alright,” Zac reluctantly agreed. “I’m sorry, I keep putting you guys in danger. I’ll try to find a way to make it up to you all.”

“No need to be so distant. We’re all friends, right?” Catheya countered with a smile. “And I’ve already gathered some tidbits I think you’ll find interesting.”

They proceeded to exchange what they’d learned since their last meeting, which ended with Catheya glaring at him accusatorily.

“How is it that you keep finding out more about what’s going on while off traveling in desolate regions, compared to us who actually spent a month in the temporary city?” Catheya muttered with annoyance.

“Lucky, I guess.” Zac smiled.

“So… It’s a trap after all,” Catheya muttered. “A lot of people have similar thoughts, but there hasn’t been any clear proof either way.”

“People know, yet they stick around?”

“The city has essentially been confirmed to predate Twilight Harbor, and everything points to it being untouched. Even if Aia Ouro has managed to set up some sort of trap, they believe that with enough participants, the smart ones will walk out with ancient treasures while using the foolish as shields,” Catheya explained.

“And everyone sees themselves as the smart ones,” Qirai added with a snort.

“A disaster waiting to happen,” Catheya agreed, then released a deep sigh. “Blood and souls… Realm Spirit… What a mess. And now with a walking powder keg joining the fray—ancestors have mercy on us.”

2

GATHERING AT THE GATES

Zac didn’t know how to feel about being called a walking powder keg, but it was hard to argue with the description after having literally blown up a volcano just two months ago.

Catheya laughed after seeing Zac’s awkward expression. “Well, I do have something that might work. I didn’t manage to gather all the information you needed, but I did get my hands on a few interesting items that might help you.”

“What’s that?” Zac asked curiously, happy to change the subject.

“First, this.” Catheya took out a finely crafted cloak made from high-quality wool.

“Invisibility cloak?” Zac blurted with excitement.

Catheya smiled. “Unfortunately, no. True invisibility requires too much energy to trick even the eyes of scouts. It would have to be a D-grade treasure making use of a Hegemon’s Core. This is something simpler, but still very useful.”

“I can’t see any difference?” Zac muttered, trying to put the thing on.

“It’s a distraction cloak,” Catheya explained. “You know that others need to focus on you for roughly two seconds to see your bounty, right?”

“Ah!” Zac exclaimed, looking at the robe with appreciation.

He remembered that Verana owned a cowl just like this. She’d used it to hide her identity when they entered the underworld together. Even Zac had found both his mind and eyes drift any time he tried to focus on her. The cloak Catheya provided now seemed to be of even higher quality, and Zac realized how useful it could be in this place.

“Exactly. You already have something to deal with your aura since coming back from the chasm, and with this, you will avoid anyone’s attention. As long as you keep moving and don’t do anything to draw attention, you might even be able to walk on a crowded street without being exposed.” Catheya’s smile grew. “Secondly, I have this.”

The next moment, a finely crafted golem appeared, its body covered in inscriptions. It was about as tall as Zac and emitted a pretty dense aura, roughly the equivalent of a normal cultivator at the peak of E-grade.

“A golem?” Zac muttered.

“A remote-controllable puppet,” Catheya explained as she handed him an array disk. “Infuse your Mental Energy into this disk, and you’ll be able to control the puppet from a great distance.”

“You’ve really thought of everything.” Zac smiled.

“Well, as much as I’d like to take credit, both these methods have become somewhat common outside the City of Ancients. The few puppeteers and craftsmen who have entered the trial are making a fortune. I simply snatched up a few of the higher-quality goods,” Catheya explained. “Now you can enter the settlement without raising any waves. I’ll try to figure out something else on the go.”

“This is more than enough,” Zac hurriedly assured her. “Should we set out?”

“Give us a moment, please?” Catheya said.

Zac nodded, guessing they needed to discuss the situation among themselves. He left the hidden room, leaving Catheya and her two companions.

“I won’t ask you to go with me this time,” Catheya said. “You know how dangerous this might get. If I fall, you can still return to the clan and work in my father’s palace.”

“Where you go, we will follow,” Varo said without hesitation, and Qirai nodded in agreement.

“So, I guess we’re going on an adventure together,” Qirai snickered. “Your spring is finally coming, huh? Some heat to melt that frozen heart?”

“That’s enough,” Catheya snorted. “You know it’s not like that.”

“Then what is it?” Qirai said with a raised brow.

“That’s…” Catheya hesitated. “We’ll see. For now, I simply enjoy traveling with him. Don’t you feel the same way? You know how life is back home. It’s safe and stable. But it’s also slow, uneventful, and predictable. If I return, I will become a Late Hegemon at worst, a Middle-stage Monarch at best, tasked with maintaining some section of our estate until the madness takes me.”

“Well, you’d better figure out what you want, and then communicate it clearly,” Qirai grinned. “That guy’s ability to create trouble is top-notch, but he seems about as dumb as they come with matters of the heart.”

“Yes, Mother.” Catheya laughed. “When did you become so wise?”

“Whatever,” Qirai grunted, then launched a jab toward Varo. “How about it, want me to help you ambush your rival?”

The quiet Revenant effortlessly dodged the swing, shifting just out of reach. “Arcaz Black holds great importance to Clan Sharva’Zi, provided his connection to the founder is true. Working against him is out of the question.”

“Boring,” Qirai muttered.

“Alright, that’s enough. You don’t need to worry about me. For now, try to figure out a way to turn this mess into an opportunity for us,” Catheya said as she walked out of the room.

The group set off toward the City of Ancients, with Varo once more taking on the role of helmsman. It allowed Zac to rest and focus on keeping the Remnant in check. It was almost like it realized Zac was aiming to pick up another splinter since the ravine, prompting it to start stockpiling energy for the upcoming clash.

It was hard to tell exactly how sapient these things were. Sometimes they just felt like small balls of primal anger, while at other times it appeared as though they had personalities of their own. In either case, it made Zac’s life a lot easier. It still released a burst of energy now and then, but it was far more controlled compared to before.

Finally, after just under two weeks of travel, the vessel stopped before Zac felt a thump as it set down on rocky ground. Zac was about to step out to check on the situation, but a cough from Catheya stopped him in his tracks. He shrugged helplessly and took out the golem, which was now decked in a robe.

“Be careful not to expose yourself,” Catheya said. “We probably have dozens of sets of eyes on us. Luckily, the spot we used last time was still available, and our neighbors should quickly lose interest when they see it’s us.”

“Alright,” Zac agreed as he slumped down into the chair again and infused some energy into the array disk.

His perception shifted, and Zac was beset by a bout of vertigo for a few seconds until his vision stabilized. Suddenly, he had two sights, one coming from himself, and one belonging to the puppet.

It was an odd feeling, but as long as he didn’t move around too much in his real body, he could freely control the golem as though it were his own. That was partly thanks to him practicing over the past weeks though. The first times he’d been unable to shift his focus properly, making the puppet stutter like a drunk. It had been a source of endless laughs for Catheya, and an embarrassing reminder for Zac of his horrible performance during the Dao Discourse in the Tower of Eternity.

Catheya donned a cowl to hide her features, even though her face had transformed into a Revenant’s, and they walked out of the vessel.

“I guess I’ll start setting up the arrays,” Qirai muttered, and Zac only hummed distractedly in response, his focus on the vision of the golem.

The City of Ancients was located in a vast basin, sitting in the center of the thousand-meter-deep indent in the ocean bed. Meanwhile, Varo had set down at the edge of a cliff overlooking the whole area, providing a spectacular view.

The city itself wasn’t that shocking, at least not in Multiverse terms. Some of the cities on Twilight Harbor world disks were larger than whole countries of old Earth. Meanwhile, this city didn’t seem much bigger than cities like New York or London.

Interestingly enough, it was enclosed by an air bubble and filled with swirling clouds that obscured most of the city’s features. Now and then a small piece of the city was exposed, showcasing ancient structures that from a distance were in decent shape. Zac could understand why many believed it housed treasures after seeing the glimpses of thousands of mansions.

In the heart of the city, a massive castle pushed through the clouds and was one of the few permanently visible structures. Its walls were covered in fractals, though many had cracked from eons of disrepair. Even then, it gave off a grand aura, and Zac guessed it was once the home of a supreme cultivator.

The city was surrounded by thick medieval walls reaching over fifty meters into the air. That wouldn’t normally be an issue, considering they were underwater and could simply swim over them. However, there was clearly a barrier powerful enough to keep the whole Twilight Ocean at bay, let alone some piddling E-grade cultivators.

Outside the city, four smaller settlements spread out in front of the four closed gates. Zac could barely believe his eyes when he saw people walking back and forth like it was just some random town on the outside. Of course, he’d already heard about the situation from Catheya, but it was still eye-opening to see in person.

It was all thanks to the Twilight Council, apparently. They had allied with the Havarok Empire to enact strict rules for anyone entering the settlement outside. The Radiant Temple hadn’t opposed the idea, and neither had the spectral cultivators. Uona’s stance was unknown, but it was a fact she hadn’t attacked anyone within a day’s travel of this basin.

Zac turned the golem’s vision to the side and spotted dozens of vessels, parked just like theirs, at the edge overlooking the chasm. Some even built scaled mansions to live in. And this was just a small section of the ledge surrounding the basin.

“It’s hard to believe we’re in the middle of a slaughter trial,” Zac muttered, his voice being transmitted through the array disk.

“It’s not as peaceful as it seems.” Catheya smiled. “I figure at least ten thousand cultivators have died in those settlements, and at least a hundred vessels like ours have been raided. But, as long as you’re strong enough to ward off opportunists, it’s pretty safe.”

“Even then, people keep flocking over,” Zac commented as he looked at the streams of cultivators swimming down toward the cliffs from every direction.

“In a place like Twilight Harbor, only a thousand or so out of all the trial-takers are expected to reach Hegemony through normal means,” Catheya said. “Few have ever left the harbor. The Twilight Ascent is the only chance to create an opportunity to overcome their lacking talent and fate. Many have still come even knowing the odds are they will die here.”

“Is it really worth it?” Zac muttered, focusing the golem’s sight down at the city.

“Aren’t you the same?” Catheya laughed. “The things you’ve done so far are beyond death-defying. If you can risk your life even though you’re so strong already, why can’t they? If anything, their willingness is even greater. If they die, they die. If they succeed, their destiny will change completely.”

“Fair enough,” Zac acceded. “What do you think? Should I try to break down the gate? I can’t sit around here forever. If Uona is already inside…”

Catheya and the others had followed Uona after she snatched the splinter, but then Uona disappeared once she’d closed in on this place. Things mostly pointed toward the vampire having somehow entered the city.

“You wouldn’t be the first one to try,” Catheya said with a smile. “Give it a bit longer. I think we’re close.”

“What makes you say that?” Zac asked with confusion.

“Womanly intuition.” Catheya winked.

“Is it population…?” Zac muttered, completely ignoring her comment. “Or perhaps energy flows?”

“Whatever,” Catheya spat. “It’s the clouds, you meathead.”

“The clouds?” Zac repeated with surprise, his attention turning back to the City of Ancients. “What about them?”

“The clouds are a lot thicker now compared to the last time I visited. When the city first appeared, you could see most of the city at any point. Now, it’s probably just days from being completely obscured.”

“Making it impossible to see from the outside if something sinister is going on inside,” Zac concluded.

“Exactly,” Catheya said.

“You’re not heading inside, right?” Zac asked for the fifth time or so.

“I told you, no,” Catheya snorted. “At least not unless the defensive array breaks apart. I want adventure, but being trapped in a slaughter array is not my definition of adventure. Only a deviant would enjoy something like that.”

“I told you I don’t like that nickname,” Zac muttered.

Catheya laughed. “Let’s head down while the others deal with the arrays. If the city is about to open, we might learn something important.”

Catheya and the golem swam down toward the closest settlement. Through his golem’s eyes, Zac spotted thousands of small shacks that formed a circle at the edge of the basin, enclosing both the City of Ancients and the settlements outside.

“What are those?” Zac asked.

“Guard stations,” Catheya snorted. “The Havarok set them up. It’s one of the worst-kept secrets of the area that there are array flags under each one. I never managed to figure out what they were for, but now that I know the whole story, I would guess they’re either there to empower the Realm Spirit or make sure the gates don’t open.”

Zac made the golem nod so she’d know he understood.

Soon, Catheya and Zac’s golem were entering the closest settlement. Unfortunately, even after having traveled back and forth for over three hours, there wasn’t much of value he’d learned. There had been no sightings of Uona, and not for lack of searching. The last time she had been seen was when she appeared roughly two days’ travel away, ten days after she’d stolen the splinter. Since then, nothing.

In somewhat related news, the Havarok was running a campaign that the city was a slaughter trap, but it mostly fell on deaf ears. Zac was still pretty interested in the large posters the Havarok had set up. One of the most common messages was ‘Uona lurks inside the City of Ancients,’ like she was some sort of dangerous beast.

Most thought it was meant to scare people away from entering, but Zac wasn’t so sure. He didn’t feel he was being narcissistic when he believed the warning was a message for him.

“What do you think?” Zac asked Catheya, focusing on the sign.

“Of anyone, I guess they’d know,” Catheya slowly said. “And we don’t have any better idea.”

“It’s a conspiracy,” a nearby Revenant warrior who’d overheard their conversation spat. “Those Havarok Dreamers say only death awaits inside the trial, yet they’ve called in more than five hundred more soldiers over the last two weeks. On top of that, they’ve recruited ten times that number as mercenaries.”

“Who cares even if that witch hides in there.” Catheya winked. “She can only kill so many of us before she runs out of blood, right?”

“You got that right!” The warrior laughed as he walked away.

Zac snorted, turning the golem away and continued down the street. Greed was running rampant in the settlements, and almost half of the discussions were theoretical debates about what kind of treasures waited inside and what they’d do after breaking through to Hegemony.

There were also quite a few who took advantage of the calm to make some money, and there were dozens of exchange stations where a few wealthy but uninformed scions were trying to buy up Twilight Fruits en masse. It seemed extremely unlikely that the Fate-Plucking Ladder would take place when the trial closed in a year, and it looked like the more connected clans had come to a similar conclusion.

Only the Elementals and one other clan were buying Twilight Fruits. Though Zac felt it was more for commercial purposes than ladder placements.

He and Catheya eventually returned to their submersible, which was now shrouded in both a layer of mist and an illusion array to keep out prying eyes. Zac opened his real eyes and stowed the puppet as it and Catheya walked into the vessel.

“I guess we’ll just wait?” Catheya sat down next to Zac. “A week at most seems to be the consensus.”

“I guess so,” Zac agreed.

The following days, Zac rested up in the vessel, but every day the impatience built in his chest. He was stressed, and not just about the splinter. It was almost as though there was some looming danger he was unaware of—one his Luck tried to make him aware of.

And on the fifth day of waiting, something changed.

“What the hell!” Zac roared, startling the others to the point they erected defensive measures.

However, it wasn’t another burst of Creation coming on, and neither was it the gates of the City of Ancients opening, even though the city was completely shrouded by this point. It was something far more unexpected, and Zac’s brain almost short-circuited as he looked at the screen in front of him.

“What’s going on?” Catheya asked, peeking out from behind a wall of ice.

“How is this possible?” Zac muttered, barely hearing Catheya’s question.

Catheya gave her two followers a look, and they left the room as Catheya walked over and put her hand on Zac’s arm. “Hey?”

Zac pulled himself out of his shock and looked over at Catheya before he shared the screen that just popped up in front of him.

Incursion opening in 8 hours

Maximum Level: 100

General: Vilari Blackwood

Lieutenant General: Joanna Thompson

Captains: Pika Blackwood, Rhuger Blackwood, Ilvere Azh’Rodum, Ciru Volor

Combatants Registered: 10,000 (10,000)

Surcharge for preregistered items and teleportation: 5,053 D-grade Nexus Coins.

Approve?

“What in the heavens?” Catheya murmured, her eyes wide.

3

INCURSION OWNER

“What in the heavens, 5,053 D-grade Nexus Coins?” Catheya said with shock, her eyes as wide as saucers. “Are your followers trying to crush the natives under mountains of wealth? Even if they seize the planet, it will be a long, long time before you turn a profit. Knowing Zecia, it might not even be possible.”

“That’s what you think I’m worried about?” Zac said with exasperation. “Why the hell has an incursion started up without my knowledge?”

“What, you didn’t know?” Catheya asked with interest.

“How would I know? I’ve been stuck in here for the last two years,” Zac said as he waved at the ocean outside the submersible.

“Just how powerful is your fate?” Catheya laughed. “You accidentally became an incursion owner? Is that even possible?”

“Be serious,” Zac groaned. “Can I stop this?”

“Stop it? Why would you want to?” Catheya countered, confusion written all over her face. “It looks like they have things in hand, and you seem to have the capital to bear their spending.”

“Have things in hand? They just endured the integration five years ago, and now they want to unleash that kind of suffering on others?” Zac said with a frown.

“That’s up to your followers, isn’t it?” Catheya shrugged. “You should know their characters, no? Are they the kind of people who wantonly slaughter the innocent for power?”

“No, but…” Zac muttered.

“Well, there you go. Would you rather the slot go to my empire or those body-snatching cultists you mentioned in the Tower of Eternity? For all you know, your followers might be the saviors who save the lives of billions.” Catheya continued. “There’s more than one way to conquer a planet.”

“Still though…” Zac said with a shake of his head.

“Perhaps if they didn’t have such a monstrous leader who kept rushing between causing trouble and falling into piles of wealth, they wouldn’t be pushing themselves to risk their lives like this. You really should know that your rate of improvement is terrifying. Your strength has, what, doubled since appearing in the Twilight Ocean? How long until your faction can no longer contain your fate?”

“I know,” Zac muttered. “But there’s no need for them to go this far…”

“It’s like the people outside,” Catheya said. “Everyone has their dreams and aspirations. Few of those who have truly embarked on the path of cultivation are content with simply becoming average. Trust in your people that they know what they’re doing.”

“I just wish I could be there to help,” Zac muttered, but he knew it was impossible.

Even if he left right now, he would be far too late. The closest exit was over a week’s travel away, and it took close to two weeks to pass through the Void when teleporting between sectors. By the time he reached Earth, the members of Port Atwood would long have entered the incursion, and the connection would be cut for at least three months.

And that didn’t even factor in that leaving the Twilight Ocean now would cripple his cultivation and possibly even kill him because of the imbalance between Creation and Oblivion.

“Well, help me make sense of the text, at least, if you can,” Zac sighed.

“Which part?” Catheya asked. “The maximum level is the soft limit of entry. Going above that level tacks on a massive surcharge, and that surcharge doubles for every additional level.”

“Wait, that means that putting a level 110 through the incursion is a thousand times more expensive than a level 101?” Zac exclaimed.

“Exactly. And sending a level 101 is roughly a thousand times more expensive than sending one within the soft limit. Below that, the price difference isn’t quite as steep. However, you’d most likely be able to send over a hundred Peak F-grade warriors for every level 90 warrior,” Catheya explained. “Most likely, some of the generals or captains in the invasion are the reason for the exorbitant price.”

Zac slowly nodded, believing that might be the case. The three undead of the Einherjar should all be within level 100, especially Vilari, who might not even have evolved by now. Of course, the fact that she’d taken the mantle of general over Joanna indicated the Mentalist most likely had evolved.

As for Joanna, he wasn’t as sure. She had been around level 95 when he set off for Twilight Harbor, and gaining another five levels was well within reason, even if she didn’t push herself. Most likely, she was a good few levels above 100, considering the items he’d sent back home for the Valkyries to enjoy.

The same was true for Ilvere, who had already been at Peak F-grade upon reaching Earth. He’d entered E-grade just a few months after the Origin Dao ran out. The last two, Zac didn’t remember. Ciru was one of the Gemlings of the younger generation, but Zac barely knew him apart from him being very talented in both combat and crafting.

It was no wonder that clans like Azh’Rezak refused to send a single E-grade through the incursion. Azh’Rezak was barely scraping by to nurture a couple of Hegemons. For them to spend hundreds of D-grade Nexus Coins to let a level 77 pass through was impossible, especially considering they’d be restricted by the System anyways.

“Are the slots negotiable as well? And what’s included in this fee?” Zac asked.

“Your force was provided ten thousand slots, and they filled them all. You can send more people, but the cost gets steeper for every additional warrior who gets teleported,” Catheya explained. “The surcharge is for approved arrays, gear, and the warriors themselves. For comparison, I had five thousand warriors and a cost of 629 D-grade Nexus Coins when I led my incursion at seventeen. And a good part of that cost was for the terraforming array.”

“I remember a friend mentioning that the warriors in his clan could spend money to increase their strength even further?” Zac asked.

“I’m not sure about that,” Catheya said. “Is his faction on the more poverty-stricken side? I guess some clans have their warriors pay their way to some degree. Another feature you can pay for is to unlock more of your strength upon arrival, but it’s not worth doing so past a certain point.”

“The Ruthless Heavens are already matching your strength with the natives, and your restricted power is meant to unlock at roughly the same pace as the natives can improve if they make the most of the opportunity. Unlock too much of your strength, and you might be harming yourself. After all, there aren’t many insights to be had if you simply slaughter all the natives like they were ants,” Catheya said.

“Then why allow it at all?” Zac asked with confusion.

“If a faction is willing to pay more than a planet is worth to send some younglings there, why would the Heavens not abide? It’s all about balance. It would be more than happy to send a Hegemon through an incursion since the revenue generated could pay for the cost of integrating one hundred other worlds,” Catheya said. “Thus increasing the odds of nurturing powerhouses.”

“The Ruthless Heavens indeed.” Zac sighed, but he still infused his will into the “‘Accept?’” button, giving his tacit blessing to the madness.

The screen disappeared, and a glance at his Status Screen indicated that the System already charged him for the cost. He could only pray they knew what they were doing when preparing everything. Between the demons, Abby, and his other elites, they would hopefully have come up with a plan with a high degree of success.

Even then, Zac knew there would be casualties. Perhaps even more than when Earth’s integration took place. After all, back then he’d been involved with closing almost all the incursions. If he had sent his armies instead of going himself, the loss of life would have been catastrophic after having closed two to three of them.

It took him over an hour to calm his nerves, while he frantically kept trying to figure out a way to help his people. Unfortunately, it really looked like there was nothing he could do. Thankfully, Vilari had long returned with the resources from Twilight Harbor, and the foundations of his followers should have improved considerably.

Along with the vast wealth at his disposal, Port Atwood would probably be even better prepared than most C-grade clans. It wasn’t that these ancient factions couldn’t provide the resources, but rather that they wouldn’t. An incursion was a risky investment, with both the natives and other factions contending for the planet.

For most, it ended up as a training trip for the young generation, where they stayed for a year or two to enjoy the Origin Dao and hunt for rare herbs. Few factions were willing to spend thousands of D-grade Nexus Coins on a couple of F-grade juniors who hadn’t even proven themselves.

That alone helped Zac calm down quite a bit. Being agitated did him more harm than good, considering how it exposed him to the shard in his head. The low susurrus of ’helpful’ suggestions had grown considerably louder since the screen had popped up, making him barely able to think clearly.

He even felt a sudden urge to pierce the Void and create a Space Gate between his location and Earth. That was a solution to his predicament that might actually “work,” but Zac was certain he would run out of lifespan long before managing to create something like that. He pushed the urge down and emptied his mind.

However, the equanimity was again broken almost eight hours later. It wasn’t due to the fact the incursion should start any moment now, though. A sudden ripple made Zac’s eyes shoot open from his meditation, and the golem next to him rushed out of the submersible. From there, Zac could witness the huge upheavals that were taking place in the City of Ancients.

There was no doubt about it, Catheya had been right. The city was completely obscured by thick churning clouds, and not even the castle in the middle was visible any longer. The gray haze essentially looked like a solid wall. Though it was still clear that the city was waking up from its slumber, as it radiated enormous amounts of energy.

Not only that, but previously invisible inscriptions had appeared on the fortifications, forming some sort of powerful array. One by one, they awakened, and the aura the city emitted grew with every breath. The thing didn’t feel like an uninviting, weaponized fortress though. Its aura wasn’t that of bloodshed, but one of ancient mystery.

While Zac’s mind was occupied elsewhere, even he couldn’t help but become moved by the possibilities the place held. More importantly, it meant it was finally time for him to get going. Between the splinter being snatched from under his nose and his followers risking their lives on some unknown world, he held a belly full of anger.

He almost looked forward to running into Uona.

* * *

“The ocean has shifted.” A handful of leaves on the Faebloom Monarch’s head turned white and dropped from his crown. He sighed. “The last spirit is exposed.”

A stir rippled through the room, as this no doubt meant the schemes of the outsiders had succeeded inside the E-grade trial. A surge of anger filled Rhodium’s heart as he gazed across the room. Vassal factions like the Karabas Clan no doubt held most of the blame for divulging the secrets of the ocean, which was why they were all absent from this meeting.

However, many of the clans here today had no doubt given up some findings of their own over the years to reap some benefits. Otherwise, something like this simply wasn’t possible.

His own clan, Yrvar-Las-Eseru, had held a chair at the council for six million years, yet they only knew of some fragmented rumors about the city that once belonged to that ancient Autarch. And it was outsiders who’d not only managed to locate it, but even modify it before bringing it to the surface? How could that be possible without multiple council members selling out core secrets of the harbor?

“Is there truly nothing we can do?” Rhodium said as he turned to the Faebloom Monarch.

The ancient treant slowly opened his eyes, his expression downcast as he shook his head, causing the leaves in his crown to flutter with the Dao of Nature.

“All our efforts to block the currents of fate have been a failure. The second facet of the Realm Spirit has already dispersed, meaning the avatar in the E-grade trial is the only one still standing.” Faebloom sighed. “Even if it remains to the end of the trial, I think the Twilight Lord will be able to supplant its will and take control.”

The fact that the D-grade trial had ended in defeat was ultimately not too surprising. With the advantage of better results across three full grades and far superior equipment, the power discrepancy between the elite and the frontier Hegemons was just too big.

They had held out some hope that quantity would beat out quality inside the E-grade trial, where they had hundreds of thousands of people working for them.

“It’s only one of two, and that man has already seized the core chamber. Besides, they are simply too old,” Heryes of the Necromancer’s Guild agreed. “They remained hidden for too long, and it’s working against us. If they had succumbed to the river of time a few million years ago, a new spirit would have been born by now, one properly in tune with the new realm. That way, the Twilight Lord would never have been able to do something like this.”

“There’s no point in lamenting that,” Rhodium said. “It looks like we are out of options. We’ll have to proceed with our final gambit.”

“Should we strike now?” Artolo, a Corpselord Monarch, ventured with some anticipation in his eyes.

“It wouldn’t work.” Heryes grimaced. “That bastard is hiding in the folds between the trial dimensions like its nexus. We might actually be helping him if we strike now.”

“What about the Havarok?” a Revenant Monarch asked. “Have they answered our call?”

“They’ve assured us they have the situation under control, but their goal is ultimately not the same as ours. For them, the only thing that matters is killing the impostor and preventing a hostile Autarch from ascending. Ruining our lifeline to make that happen is a small price to pay.” Rhodium frowned.

The room once more turned silent, and Rhodium looked around the chamber sorrowfully. Twenty-four Monarchs, the weakest of them at the end of the Middle-stage. Yet they were filled with impotence as fate pushed forward like a tsunami. A tsunami that would swallow their homes and cut off their path of cultivation.

Certainly, none were in mortal danger. They could leave at any moment and look for another place to call home. But the price for doing so was too steep. Their current accumulations were thanks to their predecessors’ hard work for tens of thousands of generations and the unique environment provided by the Twilight Ocean.

With both gone, they could simply give up on refining their inner worlds any further. Most would no doubt lose a stage or two without the Twilight Rivers providing them with a constant stream of pure energy. Their creations weren’t stable enough to withstand the drought of the frontier for too long.

There simply weren’t many sanctuaries at the edge of the Multiverse, places where the Dao was clear and the energy dense enough to keep them going.

The few continents that could support a handful of Monarchs had entrenched powers that would fight tooth and nail to keep any rootless clans from settling in. Uprooting the locals would cost too much, further weakening their already damaged foundations. And joining the greater factions after rebuffing their inquiries for millions of years?

They’d be lucky to become cannon fodder at some front line in the hopes that their descendants might get to live the life of commoners rather than slaves.

“We can’t just wait around,” Ovo, one of the two Rox’At Elementals present at the meeting said, as six golden blades appeared behind their back. “Rebirth through death.”

Murmurs of agreement echoed through the hall.

“Lady Heryes is right. It is not the right time,” Faebloom said.

“It’s never the right time with your kind,” Artolo growled. “You and the other cowards have prevented any concerted action for months now, while the situation grows more and more chaotic. We’ve spent exorbitant sums setting up those nasty spears, yet they’re collecting dust while Alvod Jondir gets closer to his goal.”

The treant grunted in response as space opened up above his crown, depicting the scene in the distance.

A vast ocean of blood churned above the entrance to the Twilight Ocean, stretching for hundreds of kilometers in each direction as it blocked out the spatial anomaly from above. Sitting on top of it was a small island where three warriors emitted tremendous auras. Any one of them would be a match for any of the councilors, but the hooded being in the middle was in a league of his own.

He was shrouded in sinister darkness, and his aura was not only that of a Divine Monarch, but one right at the threshold of ascension. Though they still didn’t know his identity, even a fool would be aware that he was here to snatch the opportunity for himself.

If the Eternal Clan guarded the Twilight Ocean from above, then the Eidolon guarded it from below. One million crystals formed a shockingly complex set of arrays, thousands of them interwoven with such complexity, they still couldn’t make heads or tails of the situation. They hadn’t even managed to pinpoint which of the crystals housed the Divine Monarch the spectrals had sent.

As if that wasn’t enough, there was even a vast nebula slowly rotating around the two guardians, tens of thousands of stars that formed an ever-changing pattern. Not only did it provide an outer barrier to stall any sabotage of theirs, but it even blocked most of their long-prepared methods to influence the trials. If not for the System’s warning, none of the trial-takers would have made it out of that triangle of death.

Artolo snorted when he saw the scene, though his fighting spirit had clearly waned a bit. Taking on not only the Undead Empire, but also the Radiant Temple, was a bit much even for the battle-crazed Corpselord.

“Let us wait a bit longer. The Tarramak Vault will open quite soon. At that point, those three will not be able to act so domineering, and an opportunity should present itself,” Rhodium said, and the others agreed. “For now, let us finalize the lances.”

“Interesting, interesting.” Artolo snickered as he phased out of the chamber. “I’ve never killed a whole realm before.”

4

DEPTHS OF MADNESS

“I guess this is it,” Catheya smiled as she walked up to Zac, or rather the golem that stood at the edge of the basin.

“Looks like it. Most people seem to agree,” Zac said.

The whole city was abuzz from the changes, and tens of thousands of warriors streamed toward the four gates. Zac spotted dozens of energy eruptions in the settlements as well, signs of chaotic battles taking place.

The City of Ancients waking up was like a match setting the whole area ablaze, and order was fast crumbling. As things looked, the scene would turn into a full-on war unless something changed. Thankfully, they didn’t need to wait for more than another minute before the gates begun to swing open, prompting the trial-takers to freeze in anticipation.

“No quest,” Catheya commented. “At least not here.”

“Is that a clue?” Zac asked.

“Increases the likelihood of this being a man-made event,” Catheya explained. “If it had been a true ancient city appearing by itself, the Ruthless Heavens would be more likely to turn the event into a limited quest. Of course, with people clawing at the gates, the System might deem it unnecessary to increase the incentives.”

Soon enough, the doors were completely opened, but Zac still couldn’t see what was going on inside. The entrance reminded Zac of a spatial gate—a shimmering wall giving no hints of what waited on the other side. That didn’t stop those at the front line though, and thousands of people heedlessly rushed into the unknown, wanting to gain the first-mover advantage.

Others adopted a wait-and-see approach, hoping to use the first batch as an experiment to see what kind of dangers waited on the other side. Unfortunately, not a single one who entered emerged again, which almost certainly confirmed that the City of Ancients was sealed from the inside.

Even then, more and more people kept streaming inside and hundreds of powerful auras started to descend toward the gates from the cliffs. It was the elites who bided their time, hiding at the edge. Judging by some of the auras, there were more than a few who possessed Dao Branches. Even they were drawn by the dense energies and mysterious fluctuations coming from the city.

Zac’s eyes turned toward the large Havarok encampment in the distance, and noted how orderly lines of warriors had started pouring toward the gate closest to them as well. With the dams collapsed, the Havarok had given up on keeping people away. Instead, they joined the fight, though Zac wasn’t sure what their exact objectives inside would be.

The real Zac donned the distraction cloak and stepped out from the submersible for the first time in weeks, stowing away the golem who had been his eyes and ears. It was time to make his move. Zac’s goals in this place differed from everyone else’s, but he was still filled with some anxiety as he saw one warrior after another swimming through the gates into the unknown on the other side.

What if someone managed to get their hands on his splinter and then left?

“Be careful,” Zac said to Catheya as he started to slowly infuse [Abyssal Phase] with Miasma. “Don’t worry about whether or not I’ve left if things get out of hand. Just exit the trial. I’ll figure something out.”

“Aren’t you sweet,” Catheya smiled as she patted his arm. “And don’t you worry. I’ll be fine, as will your followers. Who knows, you might have another planet waiting for you by the time you return home.”

Zac smiled weakly, once more filled with urgency. He didn’t know what he could do to help out his people back home, but that didn’t lessen his desire to return.

“Here, use this while you approach,” Catheya said as she handed him an ice shard. “It’ll obscure you, just in case.”

Zac looked at it curiously as he infused it with some Miasma. The ice crystal started expelling motes of ice all around him, hiding him in a shimmering nebula.

“Thank you for all your help,” Zac sighed. “I’ll convey your message to your ancestor as quickly as I can.”

“I have an idea if you’re willing. I can proactively reach out to the Ambassadors, explain your situation, and convey that you’re friendly and can be an asset to the empire. As long as I get the message to representatives of the empire, not even my master would dare make a move on you,” Catheya said. “At least it would give you a window to prepare, no matter what response the empire has. I’ll try to send you a message somehow as well, if I’m in a position to do so.”

Zac nodded, feeling the idea made sense. He’d already reconciled with the fact that his secret would be exposed soon enough. If not the moment Catheya left the trial, then at least by the time she returned home. And she was right. It was probably better to reach out to the empire preemptively, rather than leave his secret to a declining clan desperate to regain its glory.

Even if Catheya, and possibly her father, wanted to befriend him, what about the other elders?

“I trust your instincts,” Zac smiled. “Get me a good deal, alright? I wouldn’t mind visiting the Abyssal Shores in the future.”

“Gods help us,” Catheya laughed.

The next moment, Zac was gone, turned into an abyssal wraith. The world slowed once more as Zac shot toward the City of Ancients. He didn’t go for the closest gate, but rather the one to the east. The eastern gate was opposite of the one the Havarok Army was heading toward, which would hopefully minimize his interactions with those people.

They’d sent out that olive branch, but Zac wouldn’t trust his life on it.

The ancient city came closer and closer, Zac moving with blazing speed. He also noted that dozens of the cultivators descending from the ledges could match his pace. He even spotted three that were moving slightly quicker than him, most likely talents who had Dexterity as their main attribute.

Luckily, this wasn’t a race, and Zac didn’t rush into the portal when he landed at the edge of the mob waiting right outside. He started walking through the crowd at random to avoid having someone focusing on him. Honestly, though, Zac doubted his distraction cloak was even needed judging by how intently most stared at the shimmering barrier that hid the insides of the ancient city.

Not a single warrior who entered had made it back outside, but neither did Zac sense any battles or suspicious fluctuations within the walls. It was completely tranquil, providing no clues as to what waited inside. Zac hesitated a bit as he circuitously closed in on the gate. Should he really enter? It seemed like a pretty deadly event, and he hadn’t even confirmed if Uona or the splinter was inside.

But suddenly, a shudder rippled through his mind—it was there.

It was distant and obscured, but he’d undoubtably felt a weak hint of Oblivion from the depths of the city. Zac hesitated no longer, and with one leap, he entered the City of Ancients.

A thick haze greeted him on the other side, completely robbing him of any visibility. He couldn’t even see the axe that appeared in his hand, and his Draugr-vision didn’t do anything to help him either. The only thing he could sense was what he could touch, and that was the cobblestone street he walked on.

Zac started to make his way forward, his nerves taut in preparation for an ambush. However, what met his gaze was not an army of spectral cultivators or Uona. It was a normal, dilapidated street party covered in the ever-present haze. He turned around to where he came from, but the way back was completely obscured.

He guessed it was a powerful confusion array running along the wall, preventing anyone from leaving. It might be possible to brute force his way out, but he had no interest in trying that right now. He could still sense the splinter, and it felt much closer than before. It was so familiar. The impression was weak, but it reminded him of how it had felt when he’d found himself stuck with the first splinter.

Zac shook his head and stepped onto the path, his brows scrunching together into a frown.

That goddamned vampire. Zac grit his teeth as he looked around at the ghastly surroundings. Even though the haze wasn’t as dense this far in, he could barely see more than fifty meters ahead. It was all her fault. She’d forced him into this cursed place, when he could have been back in Port Atwood by now.

It was her fault his people had set out on such a dangerous mission without him, invading a world without his protection. Who knew how many deaths it would lead to? Annoyance turned to fury as he continued forward, the knuckles on his right hand whitening as he saw the faces of those back home. He’d already lost so many, and Uona had made him lose even more.

A fluctuation in the air made him turn toward the left with a snarl, where a human drenched in blood appeared through the mist. His eyes were tinted with madness and suffused with killing intent, to the point that the white haze had turned red around him. That suited Zac just fine, having an urgent need for some release, and he actually stowed his axe before he grabbed the man with his bare hands.

The human roared in anger, thrashing to rip Zac to pieces, but Zac simply sneered as the four chains of [Love’s Bond] blocked his attacks. Zac’s own two hands gripped hard and started to pull apart, and the man only had a chance to wail with pain before he was ripped in two. The rain of blood looked so beautiful as it painted the walls red, and Zac was momentarily lost in revelry. The mists in half the street had gained a rogue tint, and Zac felt like the world was suddenly more beautiful.

If he could only find a few more people and complete the imagery…

A sharp pang of pain erupted from his mind as the Shard of Creation slammed against the tunnel, prompting a few new cracks to appear. Zac shuddered as his mind cleared up, and he hurriedly erected the cage around the Remnant again. Only then did he look down at his sanguine hands with incomprehension.

What the hell just happened?

That sense of rage was so familiar. The splinter in Uona’s possession, could it really affect him from this far away? It had completely consumed him, despite having felt something was amiss for a few seconds. Or was the splinter in his mind somehow exerting pressure on him now that its brother was close-by? Zac frowned down at the corpse. Neither felt right.

The haze?

Zac quickly closed his pores and ate a general antidote pill, but it barely helped against the murderous impulses at all. He could confirm the effect wasn’t really medicinal in nature. He closed his eyes and stabilized his mind, moving away from the corpse, or more importantly, the pool of blood that seemed to react with the mist.

However, he still felt weird, murderous tendencies assail him even after avoiding both red and white mist for a while. It was like the very air was filled with condensed killing intent or something similar. Some manner of tainted Mental Energy that couldn’t be seen or sensed. [Purity of the Void] was thankfully fast at work purifying the red mist that had already entered his body, but the biggest contributor to his mental state recovering was actually the wild shard in his Soul Aperture.

The air was filled with pervasive killing intent, and it entered his body completely unseen. But the moment the murderous intent came in contact with Creation, it mostly fell apart, though his body took some damage from what was created in its stead. Some wounds were a small price to pay though, since the transformations didn’t seem to cost him his lifespan.

The foreign energy that had slipped into his body paid the price of Creation all on its own, perhaps thanks to having a will. It resulted in weird wounds forming, filled with toxic goop. Normally, Zac would have simply cut his arm and exsanguinated some of the impurities to speed up the process, but there was something weird going on with blood in this place as well.

It looked like Ventus’ predictions were right on the money. The City of Ancients contained a layered trap of soul and blood. The area itself nurtured and magnified your murderous impulses, perhaps even with the help of the Splinter of Oblivion. Next, blood interacted with the mist and supercharged it into something that provided all of the madness but none of the strength of items like the [Rageroot Oak Seed].

Now that he’d recognized the danger, Zac didn’t feel the threat was too big. At least not for now. His mental state had been in a bad spot because of the stress from the shard and the incursion, allowing him to fall for a trap that normally wasn’t nearly strong enough to take someone like him out. As long as he kept his mind guarded and his mental state stable, he should be able to withstand this place easily enough.

A sloshing sound drew Zac out of his musings, and he looked on with a mix of confusion and disgust as the pool of blood around the corpse started to congeal into small rivers that ran off into the mist, like they were called from the distance. Oddly enough, they didn’t move along the main road that should lead toward the heart of the city, but rather down one of the alleys and into the haze.

Zac hesitated before he shook his head and stayed on the main route, walking into the darkness. Once more, he found himself shrouded in the haze, but this time he was more cognizant of the risks.

He still heard whispers, but he steeled his mind, forcibly keeping the anger at bay. Soon enough, he emerged from the haze, but something was wrong. The street, the buildings, the layout. It didn’t fit with the section he’d walked through just a few seconds ago. Had he been teleported?

Or was the whole town covered in a confusion array, rather than just the edges? Zac was pretty sure that was the case. It didn’t look like he was getting closer to the splinter, even if he’d walked toward it in a straight line.

A door exploded as two bloodied warriors tumbled out, both fighting for their lives in a ruthless melee. One of them was an undead warrior wielding a sword made from ice, and the other was a human holding a staff. But the wizard had clearly gone mad, using his weapon to bash in the swordsman’s head rather than conjure spells.

The outcome of the fight was predictable, with the swordsman skewering the mage, the attack rapidly freezing him into a block of ice. However, the human seemed to have regained a sense of self at the brink of death, and a dozen massive wooden spears, teeming with life, sprung up from the ground, impaling the ice warrior a dozen times over.

The fight ended in mutual destruction, and Zac looked on with a frown as the whole street around the two combatants became shrouded in a red mist. The mist only lasted for half a minute before dissipating, at which point Zac walked over, his eyes on the pool of black blood that had formed beneath the Revenant.

As expected, the ichor started moving, flowing in a certain direction for around twenty meters before it sunk beneath the cobblestones. Zac followed, entering a side passage. If he couldn’t trust his eyes or his sense of direction, he could either choose a path at random or follow the direction of the blood in hopes that it would lead him the right way.

Zac emerged, and a victorious smile covered his face when he sensed that the splinter was a bit closer compared to before. However, just as his sense of the splinter had grown stronger, so too did the haze and the whispers of mayhem in the back of his mind.

A dying warrior was lying on the ground right in front of him, and Zac didn’t waste any time as he followed the blood that poured out from the man’s body. He appeared at another crossroads a moment later. This place was empty of crazed warriors, but it still confirmed his suspicions. The mental oppression was once more marginally stronger, as was the haze.

He would have to delve into the depths of madness if he wanted to find what he sought.

5

THE RULES OF MADNESS

The clouds swirled around Zac as he observed the new patch of ruins he’d entered by following the trail of blood. He was still in the outer edges of the city, judging by the illustrations he purchased at the settlements outside. People had painted the town by capturing the snippets seen between the clouds and extrapolated a semi-complete image of the City of Ancients.

Some sections were never exposed for some reason, including most of the central part of the city. However, many of the residential parts of town had been drawn in great detail, though the map was mostly useless now that everything seemed to be randomized by the confusion array. Thankfully, it was still possible to make an approximation of where he was located by the architecture.

The City of Ancients was like most cities, with the outer regions holding smaller buildings, apart from a number of massive structures that seemed to hold special functions. One was clearly a coliseum, while others might be temples or exchanges. These small buildings were covered with weaker arrays by the looks of it, and many structures were nothing but rubble.

Meanwhile, the neighborhoods closer to the vast castle in the center were a lot more affluent, with a few parks as large as forests that had peeked through the clouds. There wasn’t much else to say about this town, except that it seemed to have been the home to two different races when it wasn’t abandoned.

There were two clear architectural preferences, though the buildings were mixed pretty freely. Roughly half of the houses were built in white and faded blue rock, having rounded curves that reminded Zac of stones smoothed by ocean waves, and to some degree, Greek architecture. There were many spiraled roofs like the shell of a hermit crab, and Zac felt it was part of some sort of natural formation to strengthen the structures.

The second half of the buildings were more sterile, using mostly black stones when creating living quarters that came across as a slightly gothic predecessor to Scandinavian minimalism. However, these dwellings provided more space for gardens and sculptures, though the former had long turned into lifeless soil.

The buildings around him were part of the slums, though which part was impossible to tell. There were no crazed warriors to help point him in the right direction, but Zac still had some options. One was to exsanguinate himself, though he’d only do that if he was stuck. Instead, he took out a bottle of blood he’d collected to replenish Verun’s skills, and poured a small pool of it on the ground.

Time passed, and Zac frowned when his offering didn’t elicit much of a response. The pool shuddered a bit, then merely seeped through the cracks without providing any trustworthy clues. Whatever collected the blood in the city seemed to prefer fresh blood, while the haze appeared to like stale blood just the same, as it rapidly turned red around the pool.

Zac sighed in disappointment. He had a lot of blood on hand, but it clearly wouldn’t lead him straight to the splinter. Instead, he turned his attention to one of the still-standing buildings—a two-story house that may have once been a storefront on the ground floor, with a decently large living area on top.

He had called this area a slum, but it was only relative to the vast mansions in the inner town, which had gardens tens of thousands of square meters large. Depending on the level of people who once made this place their home, it might even have been a Hegemon who ran this store.

Odds were he’d just get moved farther from the core if he picked a new path at random, at least until he figured out another way to beat the confusion array. So why not stuff his pockets until someone came along? In case that also failed, he would have to bleed himself and risk a potential bout of madness.

Four chains shot forward, but they were rebuffed by a flickering barrier as a set of fractals lit up along the house. A piercing screech was emitted, making Zac blanch as he instilled his chains with the Fragment of the Coffin before attacking again. The barrier was barely functional with multiple fractals missing, and destroying a few more runes on the building broke it completely.

The whistling sound stopped, and Zac looked at the building with bemusement. Ancient theft protection, perhaps? It would be pretty hard to sneakily pilfer a store with that sound waking the whole neighborhood.

Zac stepped into the storefront, but there wasn’t much to be found. A layer of dust over five centimeters deep covered everything, and when he touched a small wooden bench, it collapsed into ash. Just how long had this city been hidden under the ground for furniture to be reduced to this point? There was no way that herbs would maintain their efficacy this long… Although, other items weren’t as touched by the passage of time.

Swirling clouds of dust were kicked up as he rummaged about, and Zac was soon forced to tie a cloth over his mouth and nose to avoid inhaling the ancient dust. Eventually, he found something of interest in a pile of dusty shards of glass that might once have been a display case. It was a couple of stacks of talismans, though only eleven maintained their use after going through them.

Most had lost their efficacy due to the inscriptions having faded away. The papers only remained since they were made from some sort of spiritual material, and possibly treated somehow to increase their quality and durability. Still, the ones that remained provided Zac with some clues. Looking at the scripture, it was clear this shop was meant for the living, rather than some undead race.

The inscriptions were based on the script of the Apostate of Order, but trying to decipher it felt like looking at some proto-language on Earth rather than the letters he was used to. [Primal Polyglot] and his accumulated experience helped him somewhat understand their functions though, mostly because they weren’t that complicated.

The first set was simple healing talismans you’d slap on your wound to seal it and increase the speed of recuperation. The talismans held a hint of Life, and Zac estimated they’d be equivalent to a Middle E-grade healing pill. The other type of talisman was Life-attuned as well, and Zac found them pretty interesting.

They were offensive talismans, even though their patterns were over 50% identical to the healing ones. From what he could tell, they were meant to flood certain parts of an enemy’s body with Life-attuned energies to damage organs and bursts blood vessels. They essentially over-healed parts of the body.

This method was quite ingenious, considering many defensive talismans and skills wouldn’t block out a healing wave. The bodies of living cultivators also took in these kinds of energies naturally, since Life-attuned energy had all kinds of health benefits. Putting Divine Crystals in cultivation caves was the norm, for example, since it boosted health and longevity.

The talisman took advantage of this, acting like a trojan horse to bypass some of warriors’ natural resistance. This obviously wouldn’t work against undead, whose bodies were naturally hostile against Life-attuned energy, but these talismans would probably be quite lethal against them anyway.

Zac felt there was a lesson there, as he still struggled to find ways to use the Dao of Life offensively. If he wanted to grasp the Branch of Life in the future, he would have to broaden his definition of Life to include more than just the healing aspect. This was just one simple, yet effective, aspect of life, while the pulses at the volcano had shown him another aspect.

He kept rummaging through the house for another minute, but only found some Nexus Crystals hidden under a loose tile in the bedroom and two more stacks of talismans. Even then, Zac wasn’t too disappointed since his findings confirmed a few things. First of all, the city seemed to have been hastily vacated.

Otherwise, the talismans and secret stash of money would have been brought away by the owners. It was also possible that everyone had been instantly killed by something like a mental attack, and their bodies had turned to dust like the furniture. No matter which was the case, that hopefully meant the bigger houses also had their valuables left behind.

Secondly, a shop at the edge of the City of Ancients sold Middle E-grade items like they were common goods, which probably meant the inner parts held D-grade items. And perhaps, the castle in the middle was once controlled by a Monarch, meaning there was a chance for C-grade items to appear.

Zac was still some ways from reaching D-grade, but he’d already spent a good chunk of the seemingly endless fortune his mother had left him. Port Atwood would sooner or later start generating a steady source of revenue, but income sources like the Havenfort Chasm would take thousands of years to build up.

This was a huge opportunity to make a fortune in the short run. After all, even the worst C-grade items were more valuable than the best E-grade items by multiple orders of magnitude. Just a single pill or a piece of Spiritual Metal at C-grade might be worth more than his whole fortune. Certainly, he had his hands full with Uona and the splinter, but he would have to be crazy if he didn’t keep his eyes open for other opportunities.

Hopefully, the System hadn’t been stingy and whisked away all the High-grade items already.

Light steps echoed out on the cobblestone outside, and Zac immediately turned away from the desolate store and walked out to see who’d arrived. It was a Revenant who was made from some unknown humanoid race with oversized purple eyes. She wasn’t affected by the madness of the city either, and three glowing orbs shuddering with condensed Mental Energy swirled around her.

The moment Zac stepped out of the doorway, the woman turned in his direction. At first, she looked a bit confused, like she couldn’t make heads or tails of what she was seeing. Zac didn’t know why, but he looked down at himself and noticed he was absolutely covered in dust. A quick shake and it fell off, and the Revenant’s look went from confusion to despair as she peered into Zac’s abyssal eyes.

The Ladder Screen had appeared above the Revenant as well only showing a value of 0-250. The moment she knew who she was dealing with, she rushed toward the closest path, but Zac was much quicker. A chain slammed into a wall in front of her, and Zac dragged himself over to bar her path.

“Stop,” Zac calmly said.

“Lord Black,” she said with a deep bow, her voice shaking with fear. “I have nothing that would enter your exalted eyes. Please, spare me.”

“I have no interest in your life, but I need answers. How do you resist the madness?” Zac asked, even as she continued to shrink away with fear.

“I’m a Spiritual Warrior. My soul is strong enough to resist the lure,” she said.

Zac wasn’t too surprised now that he’d gotten a better look at the three orbs rotating around her. They were not only made from Miasma, but they also contained a lot of Mental Energy.

“Are you able to overcome the confusion array and pick the correct path?” Zac asked.

“No,” she hurriedly said with a shake of her head. “That is out of my expertise. After finding out the nature of this place, I simply plan on moving at the edges and avoid battle until someone breaks this array.”

Zac sighed. He wouldn’t get anything of use out of this woman. She wasn’t much better than the average warrior that entered the trial, just above the weakest warriors who dared enter the City of Ancients. She didn’t seem to have any backing either that would allow her to share insights Zac didn’t already know.

He asked a few more questions, but she knew even less than he did. He even had her try to instill some Mental Energy in a batch of blood to ‘enliven it,’ but it didn’t make a lick of difference. One side of the pool bubbled slightly more than the other, but the whole thing was pretty inconsistent. That left him with one conclusion—someone would have to bleed if he wanted to proceed.

It almost felt like it was intentional. Uona didn’t explicitly stop people from finding the way toward the core, but every step forward would need a sacrifice of blood. That blood, in turn, would probably be used for something nasty that would empower the vampire.

“Release some blood, and you can go,” Zac grunted.

“Please, I saw another warrior get a wound. He was withstanding the madness before, but it seeped into the wound. I’m afraid—” She hesitated.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have a lot of options either,” Zac said with an even stare. “It’s life and death for everyone here. I’ll give you two options. Release some blood on the ground and I’ll give you a natural treasure from the inner part of the Mystic Realm. Refuse, and I’ll knock you out and use you as a compass.”

What he was doing wasn’t very gentlemanly, but this wasn’t the time to start equivocating about right and wrong. If possible, he would prefer not to harm the innocents to reach the heart of the City of Ancients, but he’d do what he needed to get the job done. The Havarok had warned of this place for months, yet this Revenant and others jumped heedlessly into the maws of the unknown in search of treasure.

Besides, the sooner he got to the heart of the city, the sooner this madness would end.

In fact, Zac started to wonder if he might be able to seize the splinter without having to deal with Uona at all. After seeing the state of the Blood Slave back in the ravine, Zac had guessed she used her underlings as containers for the thing. But now, the Remnant was out in the open judging by how its aura permeated the whole city.

Hopefully, Uona would be busy with all the blood that kept pouring toward the heart of the city, allowing him to snatch the splinter with the help of his movement skill before they knew what hit them. He’d seen the Havarok entering the city ready for war as well, and he might even be able to use them as a distraction while absconding with the splinter.

The Mentalist was clearly reluctant, but she took a deep breath and brandished a knife with a silver gleam. A small wound was opened up on her palm, and a stream of black blood fell to the cobblestones. The reaction was immediate as the white haze in the air was drawn over, their color rapidly darkening to gain a sanguine hue.

“How do you feel?” Zac asked curiously from the distance, not forgetting to mark the direction the blood moved before being swallowed by the ground.

“It’s entering my body,” she said with a shuddering breath as black veins stood out on her forehead.

Zac looked on as the Revenant struggled for almost a minute while stumbling around in the area. Her eyes had gained a red tint, but she was still clearly in control as she applied a healing balm over the wound. The bleeding stopped quickly enough, and her visage relaxed soon after, her aura stabilized. She took a shuddering breath before she looked at Zac.

“Avoiding the haze only lessened the effect. I felt a powerful bloodlust enter my body until the wound closed no matter where I moved. However, simply being covered in blood did nothing to me personally, except attract the haze. After the wound was closed, I was able to expel the bloodlust by controlling my mind and circulating my Dao,” the Revenant reported, clearly understanding what Zac was after.

The report was extremely helpful. It looked like getting wounded in this place was doubly dangerous compared to normal, but if he kept his mind in check, he shouldn’t be taken out of commission. As long as he didn’t get rage-addled to the point that he started fighting like a beast, forgetting skills and energy circulation, his body would heal quickly enough while [Purity of the Void] dealt with the rest.

“Thank you,” Zac nodded as he threw over one of the decent herbs he’d found in the Coral Forest on the way back from the chasm. It was nothing special to him after having pilfered that place for weeks, but it was probably as valuable as over fifty good herbs you’d find in the middle reaches of the Twilight Ocean.

“It’s my pleasure,” the Revenant said with a curtsy before she hurriedly stowed the precious herb. “If anything, the experience helped me as well. It’s better learning the rules of this place now than when under attack by a crazed warrior.”

“True enough,” Zac grunted. He walked into the haze in the direction the blood had indicated, leaving the Revenant to her own devices.

6

SNEAKING INSIDE

“Time to go, Number 7,” Zac muttered, and he was answered by a bestial roar.

The chains of [Love’s Bond] rattled as the Corpselord, completely consumed by rage, tried to break free for the hundredth time. Zac no longer register the clamor as he nicked the thigh of the struggling warrior, prompting a small stream of black blood to fall toward the ground.

The ichor was snatched up by the pull before it even had time to land, proving that he’d made great progress, even though it sometimes didn’t feel like it. He flashed forward, entering the haze and leaving the deathly husks of ancient trees behind. Soon enough, he appeared in another section, this one thankfully on the edge of the forest he’d spent the last three hours inside.

He stood between two trees in a line that delineated the park. On the other side of a cobblestone road stood an intricately carved wall leading into what Zac assumed was one of the inner mansions of the City of Ancients. There were no enemies in this one either, and Zac sighed in relief before he closed his eyes.

The last battle had been pretty rough, with Zac being pushed hard by a warrior who wielded two Peak Fragments. Normally, Zac wouldn’t have been too worried about such an opponent, but there were so many special restrictions in place here. He’d been pushed to fight twice as hard just to avoid getting wounded, and any lapse in concentration led to the shard in his mind desperately trying to break out.

Meanwhile, that warrior lost his rationality to the environment of the inner regions of the city. He was consumed by his killing intent, to the point he even used life force in his attacks, but not to the point he forgot how to use skills. Only by whittling him down with his Inexorable Stance had Zac managed to exhaust, trap, and then kill the warrior without wasting too much energy or opening himself up to the madness.

The screams of murder were almost deafening here in the heart of the city, and Zac feared the slightest nudge would push him over the edge. For now, his willpower and Hidden Nodes were enough to make do. Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Number 7.

Inhuman gurgling echoed out from his captive, and Zac looked over with a sigh. Opening this path was the limits of this Corpselord by the looks of it. His muscles were twisting and turning like a dozen snakes inhabited his body. Any more and he would share the same fate as Compass and Number 2.

“Good luck,” Zac muttered as he sprinkled some Calming Dust he’d looted from another warrior on the Corpselord before throwing him into the haze.

Zac shook his head and started for the gate leading into the mansion, hoping to find some loot while waiting for the array to reset. Two days ago when entering this place, he had been so full of momentum, with anger and urgency pushing him on. But the nature of the City of Ancients constantly sapped him of that state, and he was just mentally exhausted by this point.

The first lesson after parting with the Mentalist Revenant was that you couldn’t wait too long after following the blood trail. He’d wanted to see the result of getting wounded, but that had given the weird array enough time to reset, sending him farther away from the core.

From there, he made pretty quick progress by capturing a warrior who had already completely lost his mind. Since he wasn’t in any state to introduce himself, Zac simply called him Compass, since that was what he would be used as. Compass had provided him with a lot more insights.

First of all, the blood wasn’t leading the way, it was opening the path. If too little blood was sacrificed, the paths the blood indicated weren’t any better than taking a path at random.

Secondly, you could only advance between three and five zones in a row before being forced to stop for around twenty minutes. Any faster, and you’d get stuck in the haze for half an hour until you were spat out farther back than when you started. Zac eventually figured out when to stop by observing his Remnants, but that was only after he got stuck in the haze four times, wasting quite a bit of time.

Third, you could only be instilled with so much madness before things turned messy. Zac had a small mountain of healing pills now, and had shifted between bleeding the first man he caught and restoring his blood with pills to make rapid progress. At least until he was stopped after being trapped the first time around.

Compass had suddenly exploded, resulting in a massive eruption of blood that almost dragged Zac into madness as well. The warrior had been bled too much, allowing the weird array to reach a critical mass inside his body. The whole section had been turned red upon the eruption, and Zac was forced to escape down a random path.

The same fate then befell Number 2, another warrior deep into the throes of madness by the point Zac ran into her. She’d already killed her enemies and allies alike, and he used her as proof that people could only get bled so many times before the accumulated toxins became too much to bear, even if you gave it some time in-between.

Now, Zac captured any blood-crazed person he ran into and borrowed their blood before letting them go. After helping himself to their Cosmos Sacks, of course. If they survived or not after that would be up to their luck.

He’d hoped Number 7 would be able to take him the final stretch, but found himself stranded once more. At least he could feel he was extremely close. The splinter’s presence was palpable, and this was the second park he’d passed through. There were only so many of them in the City of Ancients, and he guessed the castle would be coming up at any time.

Zac looted the gatehouse of the mansion with practiced ease, but was barred from entering the proper structure by a wall of haze. Any farther and he’d end up somewhere random again. Normally, he would have been extremely annoyed at not being able to enter the core sections of the mansion. Except, he’d encountered this situation over a dozen times already.

Only open spaces were included in the maze that the Eidolon and Uona had crafted, with just the edges of the communal spaces and mansions being accessible. Over fifty houses looted of some random crystals and treasures, and he still hadn’t found a single trove worthy of its name.

Time passed, and Zac started to hesitate about what to do. There was nothing else except the edge of the park and the gatehouse. He could dismantle the wall itself, but it was made from some common E-grade stone that wasn’t worth more than a few E-grade coins.

He’d been forced to backtrack and lose over two hours’ progress to find Number 7, and now he was even farther into the maze. Only a handful had the ability to get this far, and none would be an easy target to capture and bleed. Zac looked in the direction of the splinter, coming to a decision.

He’d roll the dice. The splinter felt close enough to almost touch, and going by the vast wall enclosing the mansion, it had to be one of the buildings neighboring the castle itself. Still, he did have some misconceptions about sacrificing a bit of his blood.

Hopefully, his solution would work.

He took a steadying breath before weakening the cage to the shard, causing a flood of Creation Energy to course through his body. The Remnant was veritably vibrating by this point, and Zac wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep it contained with Mental Energy much longer. It was clearly gearing up for war, each shudder squeezing out a little more Creation Energy in anticipation.

Zac only released a small bit of what he captured in the prison, but it was enough to almost overwhelm him. The whispers of mayhem were immediately drowned out by the whispers of possibility, but Zac forcefully kept his mind blank. He pricked his finger with [Verun’s Bite], and a drop of pure darkness appeared.

Just as the ichor was about to get dragged off to God-knows-where, a surge of Creation entered it on Zac’s command. The drop flew toward the left for a few seconds before it turned into a small firefly that swung its pitch-black wings a few times then exploded. A surge of killing intent filled him, but it was immediately doused in the clamor of the rampaging Creation.

Zac flashed away from the reddening mists and toward the direction the drop indicated, pushing on the wound to squeeze out a stream of blood before it closed. A storm of Creation again entered his ichor, but it only shuddered as Zac tried to keep the energy contained.

The ichor entered the white mist, and Zac sensed the small shift that confirmed the path had opened. He flashed forward, only to wind up in another small section of the City of Ancients rather than inside the castle. Zac swore.

His anger only lasted a second before he quelled his mind, but it was still enough to conjure a massive gate out of gold in front of him.

A pained grimace appeared on Zac’s face over the loss of life force, but at least there was some good news to go with the bad. It wasn’t a random occurrence that an opulent gate appeared from his expenditure of creation. Another one could barely be discerned within the mist at the other side of the area, this one even larger than the one he created.

In fact, he didn’t see the top of the gate or the wall it was attached to, despite the visibility reaching over fifty meters in the air. Even the ostentatiously decorated wall in the previous section was only ten meters high or so, indicating he might just have found his destination. If this wasn’t the wall leading to the castle in the middle, then what was?

The gate was barely visible, with most of it swallowed by the mist. Zac walked back and forth with a frown, wondering what the best course of action was. He punched the towering wall to see if breaking through was feasible, but it only ended with a painful rebound hurting his knuckles, while not so much as a crack appeared on the brick he targeted.

Zac’s abyssal eyes widened in shock. He hadn’t infused his Dao or full power into the attack, but there was almost thirty thousand effective Strength behind the punch. It was enough to turn a small mountain into gravel, yet he hadn’t even left a mark on this stone? It wasn’t like he sensed an array or barrier blocking his attack either.

Just how sturdy was this material?

Zac tried to break the stone with his axe next, but even a high-powered swing only left a surface mark rather than a scar. Zac looked at the enormous wall, and an almost impossible thought crossed his mind. Had someone actually used a D-grade material to build a wall as big as this? Were there cultivators this disgustingly wealthy?

His brain almost short-circuited at the thought of the costs involved for such an undertaking. There were no doubt many ancient clans in the Multiverse Heartlands who could do something like this without a care, but this was ultimately the frontier. From what he’d heard, there were quite a few Monarchs in the frontier that hadn’t even seen C-grade materials their whole lives.

Even the well-off Monarchs from established forces considered C-grade materials as priceless treasures, perhaps only getting their hands on a handful during their whole lives. After all, C-grade materials were simply to slow to come into being. If it took a million years to nurture a Monarch, then it might take ten times that for a C-grade herb to mature, unless some special circumstance was speeding the process along.

Problem was, how often could a stretch in the forest remain untouched for ten million years, even in a secluded Mystic Realm? Natural calamities, beasts fighting for territory, greedy cultivators looting the herb while it still was E or D-grade. The spots these herbs could appear in the frontier were scarce enough, and it wasn’t like these places would be left untouched for the time required.

That’s why D-grade materials were the base resource for frontier Monarchs to progress, where they replaced quality with quantity. They swallowed mountains of resources just to maintain their cultivation, constantly scratching their heads on how to gather enough money to advance.

For them to build a simple fortification purely from D-grade materials? Inconceivable.

The scene far surpassed his earlier estimation of what kind of town this was. It had to be an exceedingly wealthy Monarch who once lived here. A Divine Monarch, probably, who had less use for D-grade materials. Perhaps… someone greater.

Zac’s heart hammered as he considered the possibility of looting an Autarch’s residence. Even if it was just an Autarch’s outhouse, it was probably worth as much as a small kingdom in the Zecia Sector, going by the extravagance of the outer wall. Before his thoughts got away from him, Zac forcibly calmed his mind and refocused on the task at hand.

Cutting his way through the wall was out of the question. The only method he saw working was if he either expelled an Annihilation Sphere to blow a hole or large amounts of Creation Energy to turn the stone into something else. Problem was, the wall was probably way too thick to blow up, even with all the Oblivion Energy he’d accumulated. And who knew how much lifespan would be required to transmute solid D-grade stone?

The wall was completely airtight as well, rendering it impossible to make use of [Abyssal Phase]. Zac looked around with hesitation before he released a small Creation-infused droplet of ichor again. As expected, it shot into the wall rather than into one of the side passages.

Zac walked over to the arch of the gate, trying to peer around its edge. Finally, there was some good news, as Zac could see there wasn’t a door in the way. It might have rotted off or be some sort of drop-down gate. In either case, he could barely make out a tunnel of unknown depth.

He couldn’t see the other side at all, as it was covered in an extremely thick layer of mist. But that was enough for him, and a plan had already formed in Zac’s mind. A bottle appeared in his hand, and a small river of blood started pouring out onto the ground some distance from the gate. Even this close to the core of the City of Ancients, the ‘dead’ blood wasn’t dragged away, but rather formed a pool before slipping between the cobblestones.

The whole area darkened as the extremely condensed clouds started absorbing the blood, and Zac felt his whole vision turning red. That didn’t stop him though. He kept pouring out blood and was elated to see that his plan worked.

It almost looked like a strong draft affected the tunnel as a haze continuously streamed out from the gate, heading straight for the still-growing pool of blood. Previously, the tunnel had been completely filled, and Zac knew from experience that passing through in a situation like that would get him all turned around until he appeared in a random location in the city.

But now, the haze had thinned out, though it still was a bit iffy whether it was enough. Zac grit his teeth and crushed the bottle, prompting a cascade of blood to crash out. Tens of thousands of liters created a gory tsunami, almost like he were under attack by Uona.

Zac was absolutely drenched in blood, and his vision swam as his mind grew muddled. The pain from a series of clashes between Creation and bloodlust in his body kept him sane enough to remember what he needed to do. The chains of [Love’s Bond] rushed into the tunnel, which now had a space over fifteen centimeters wide void of any haze.

He was finally able to see the end of the tunnel, allowing him to latch two of the chains to the wall on the other side, while another two kept him in place to the outer wall. With this, he was firmly attached, and it shouldn’t be possible for him to be dragged away by the confusion array.

The environment was quickly becoming unbearable where he was, so Zac wasted no time putting his plan to practice. Two of the chains extended while the other two retracted, which dragged Zac through the tunnel like he was attached to a conveyor belt.

The haze was all around him, making any sense of direction impossible. He kept pushing himself through until he found himself on the other side of the tunnel. It felt like he’d escaped a nightmare of running in place when the small snippets of land surrounded by obscuring clouds were finally replaced by a grand view of a huge castle reaching toward the sky.

He made it.

However, a wave of killing intent reminded him that he’d just completed the easy part of his mission. This killing intent didn’t come from some array this time, but rather a small army of red-eyed cultivators surrounded by swirls of blood. They looked a bit surprised by his appearance, but that was about it.

“Our mistress was wondering if you would show up,” one of the leaders said as dozens of powerful auras were released. “She will be delighted to learn of your presence.”

“So much for sneaking,” Zac muttered as a huge, jagged edge appeared in front of [Verun’s Bite].

7

OUT OF TIME, OUT OF OPTIONS

Zac tried to take in the situation as he cleared his mind of the tremendous waves of synthetic bloodlust that crashed through him after drenching the previous area in blood. The castle grounds were far bigger compared to how it appeared through the vaunted dome from the outside. It was like a city of its own, stretching thousands of meters in every direction.

Just the outer square he entered was as big as half of Port Atwood, with the whole castle grounds being dozens of times larger. It was nowhere near the scale of the research base in the Mystic Realm, but was still insanely large to be a residential building. A million people would be able to live here, with plenty of room to spare.

The group of Blood Cultivators in front of him, most likely Blood Thralls converted by Uona, seemed to have been in the middle of preparing for some battle, only for Zac to stumble into the square they used as a gathering point. There were over fifty, with many of them emitting auras that put them in the top percentile of the trial.

Uona had been active in her recruitment, not simply indulging in wanton slaughter that most seemed to have believed. As for the blood mistress herself, she was nowhere in sight. However, Zac could sense a tremendous sanguine aura in the distance. It didn’t come from the main structure though, and Zac could guess why—it was sealed.

A radiant rune hovered above its main tower, powering a barrier that appeared completely impenetrable. The bloody aura rather came from a side structure right next to the castle. A huge, bloody sphere hovered above the building, and more and more blood continuously seeped into it from the building below.

Something terrifying was brewing inside the ball, no doubt the results of thousands of cultivators being killed and drained in this trap. Was it an offensive array of some kind? To strike at either the Havarok who were probably on their way? Or at the sealed castle in the middle, to seize the valuables and expose the Realm Spirit that Ventus mentioned?

Oddly enough, the desolate aura of the Splinter of Oblivion didn’t come from the same direction as the bloody egg. Instead, it seemed to originate from another side building almost on the opposite end of this massive compound. This one didn’t give off any indications of danger like that shockingly condensed sphere of blood, but Zac still felt his hair stand on end when looking in that direction.

In either case, he’d already been exposed. The fact that Uona wasn’t already rushing toward him probably meant she couldn’t leave the orb as she wished. That didn’t prove she was completely locked in place though, and the more time he wasted, the higher the risk was of him getting mired in her ploy.

Zac shot forward, and the pent-up frustration that had been set to simmer for weeks, was finally allowed ignite into a conflagration. For the first time since entering the city, he didn’t quell these murderous impulses. The haze was gone, and that the pervasive array didn’t cover this core section either.

The traps of soul and blood could no longer harm him, making his anger a tool rather than a weakness. Instead of pushing it down, he used it to regain his long-lost momentum as he closed in on the Blood Thralls, the chains of [Love’s Bond] piercing the streams of blood flooding toward him.

He didn’t activate [Abyssal Phase], as there was no need. His towering aura filled with killing intent had given the Blood Thralls pause, and that short moment of hesitation was all he needed to close the distance with a few herculean leaps. A keening cry of bloodlust echoed through the square as the massive edge of [Gorehew] ripped three Peak E-grade warriors to pieces.

The moment the blade bisected the final warrior, it disappeared, just as a sinister aura filled the chains of his other Spirit Tool. The churning waves of blood closing in on him instantly turned black before they started to fall apart, a result of an overwhelming wave of corruption filling them from [Blighted Cut].

Zac’s eyes lit up, confirming his theory that his rot-based skills would be effective against Blood Cultivators. Although, while these were warriors working under some sort of slave-like compulsions, they were ultimately talented warriors who’d qualified to enter the Twilight Ascent.

More attacks pelted toward him, and the three pygmy skeletons answered his call.

A large spectral coffin appeared in front of him, and it swiped back and forth to crush the incoming blood spears. Still, [Profane Exponents] couldn’t completely block out everything when fifty warriors attacked him at once. A sharp pain erupted in his side as a lanky cultivator flashed past him with shocking speed, wielding two daggers dripping of both blood and ichor.

Unfortunately for him, the rogue underestimated just how inhumanly durable Zac’s body was, and only managed to leave a shallow wound in his side. The blades had been laced with some sort of toxin, but Zac instantly sensed it wouldn’t become a problem. The City of Ancients was ultimately in the middle reaches of the Twilight Ocean, and his [Purity of the Void] node had more than enough spare capacity to deal with some toxins.

Besides, he was a pureblood Draugr, which brought the benefit of extremely strong natural resistance to most poisons.

The attack didn’t even phase Zac, and he continued to push forward as a wave of darkness spread out with Zac as the epicenter. One skill after another was activated while Zac started to superimpose his domains to completely restrict the small army.

The blood soldiers clearly understood they were dealing with a close-combat warrior and rushed to set up a series of defenses, while two squads pelted him from behind a bloody barrier. Meanwhile, the rogue from earlier was joined by another group of nimble warriors that tried to launch quick and deadly strikes from the sides.

None of these warriors were a threat to him—there were simply so many. He only had two hands and the ability to keep a couple of skills running at once, and he felt one shallow wound after another being added to his body. Which was exactly the kind of fight he excelled at, and he inexorably pushed forward as he was joined by some reinforcements in the form of axe wraiths.

From there, the dance of his Inexorable Stance begun, where he continuously advanced, unleashing an unceasing barrage at both the backlines and the warriors who tried to flank him. A spectral warrior appeared behind a thrall who wielded a spike and a shield, but just as she was about to stab the specter and destroy it, a chain dripping of corrosion shot for an opening under her arm.

She desperately swiveled to block the chain with her shield, only to open herself to an attack from the wraith. She was still a Dexterity-based warrior and phased to the side just as she was about to be bisected by a ruthless swing of the wraith. However, she was still nicked by the spectral edge, which meant her fate was sealed.

A rune appeared on the wound, and she stumbled forward, shrieking from pain as the darkness of [Deathwish] streamed into her wound. A few more warriors had been marked already, and even the unscathed Blood Thralls were in a bad way from his corroding domain. The blood attacks were continuously being eroded by the pervasive atmosphere, and by the time they reached Zac, they’d lost half of their strength.

Zac wouldn’t let his summoned companions do all the work, and the four chains of [Love’s Bond] weaved back and forth to restrain and harass the flanks while Zac pushed straight ahead, braving a ceaseless barrage of attacks. The ranged attackers tried to keep some distance, but he used his superior attributes and wraiths to direct the battle.

Soon enough, he managed to swap places with the Blood Thralls, with them having their backs against the huge wall. That way, they weren’t able to escape, and Zac would be able to maneuver more freely in case reinforcements appeared.

It was a valuable insight. Until now, he’d only fought one or a handful of enemies while utilizing his Inexorable Stance. In those battles, his tactics had been to restrain each individual warrior, directing the tempo while creating openings. Now, it was more about controlling the tempo of the whole battlefield while breaking apart their cooperation.

He was an unyielding army, neither fearing death or defeat. Any attempt of the enemy to swing the battle in their favor was crushed before it even had a chance to start. Ambushes were turned into frantic last stands as wraiths, corrosive chains, and Zac himself appeared out of nowhere. Defenses and defensive lines were broken by brute force and the ghastly light of the lantern-wielding skeleton.

Thirty seconds passed, and more than twenty thralls had already fallen to Zac’s unceasing barrage, with another ten sporting either wounds or corrosive runes of [Deathmark].

Zac realized these warriors were a bit like the tattooed puppets he encountered close to the Twilight Chasm. There were mages, warriors, and Dexterity-based cultivators, but they all used blood as the basis for their attacks. Zac didn’t know exactly how it worked, but it was undeniable these people probably had their cultivation path altered when they were turned.

There was a hint of unfamiliarity in their actions, a sluggishness he normally wouldn’t encounter in an E-grade warrior. That was a huge opportunity for Zac as one warrior after another fell, continuously restoring some of his lost Miasma through [Fields of Despair].

Unfortunately, Zac labored under some disadvantages of his own. He took a step forward, but a burst from the Shard of Creation made him stumble. The Remnant was in a fully rampant mode by now, and Zac felt he had a few minutes tops before he lost control entirely. The shard needed an outlet, and quickly.

“Just wait a little more and you’ll get your wish,” Zac muttered as he adjusted the grip of [Verun’s Bite].

The inner area was almost void of people, and his eyes turned toward the nondescript building in the distance—the building where the Splinter of Oblivion waited. As long as he got his hands on that thing, Uona was more than welcome to come over. He’d treat her to the same reception as the adolescent dragon back in the Tower of Eternity; a blast of Chaos right in her face.

Until then, he was restrained, fearful of exposing his huge stockpile of Creation Energy in his body. That’s why he had to fight so hard against a group of cultivators who were both weakened by the Twilight Energy and unfamiliar with their new state of existence. The moment he infused his skills with his Dao, they would definitely transform like [Arcadia’s Judgment] did.

That would reveal his hidden card against Uona without a doubt. Even if she wasn’t here, he was sure she was observing the battle one way or another.

Zac fought desperately, using everything he’d learned over the past two years as he tried to restrain and dismantle their cooperation, while he relentlessly felled the warriors. But for every Blood Thrall he eliminated, he received a couple of wounds. Furthermore, these slaves were not deterred at all by seeing their comrades fall. If anything, they fought more valiantly, and Zac even saw that the blood of the fallen streamed toward their compatriots to bolster their attacks.

Meanwhile, his domains were starting to collapse.

A dozen thralls had worked together to unleash a bloody rain, where every drop was like a small projectile that ripped apart the darkness. Together with the constantly churning rivers of blood that rampaged through the area, crushing his specters and forcing him back just as he was about to deliver killing blows with his axe, he knew his skills teetering on the brink of collapse.

The Blood Thralls weren’t stupid either. They’d lost half their warriors already, while only dealing some surface damage to Zac in return. And with his skills falling apart, they had one last chance to turn the tides before he killed them all. The bloody rivers ignited one by one, as the thralls sacrificed their longevity to give them a final burst of power.

Zac didn’t know if it was just to deliver a strike of vengeance while they stood at death’s door or if Uona’s mark had some sort of compulsion. In either case, it was bad news. He was practically surrounded by a swarm of bees that frantically tried to defend the hive. Meanwhile, the force inside his mind kept building, making it harder and harder for him to focus.

Something had to give.

“Enough!” Zac roared from pain and frustration as thirty bloody chains, each one wrought from bone and sinew, ripped out from his body in a burst of fury and Creation.

They punched forward with undeniable momentum, propelled by a D-grade treasure gone berserk, crushing defenses and ripping warriors to shreds. Zac’s own body felt as though it were being torn apart, but he had at least managed to use the Longevity Gem this time around rather than his own life force.

The area could have been a layer of hell by this point, with enormous pools of blood covering hundreds of meters. Maimed body parts littered the ground, some hacked to pieces by [Gorehew], with others corroded and killed by [Deathmark].

In the middle, Zac stood like a denizen of the Maleboge, his body a mix of black and red as the chains created from his innards held the last thralls in the air like a morbid homage to the spectral chains of [Profane Seal]. Zac groaned in pain as the links shook, throwing off the carcasses before they were drawn back into his body. He expended more Creation Energy to restore his body to its normal form.

The moment the chains were returned, a grey ball appeared in his hand which he threw to the ground, creating a thick, ashy haze that covered the area. By the time the dust cloud settled, Zac was already gone, transformed into a spectral wraith surging toward his goal—the Splinter of Oblivion.

His gory outburst was pretty suspicious, but he was out of time and out of options. The Blood Thralls delayed his progress to the point that the amount of Creation Energy had become unbearable, and he would have to vent it one way or another. Rather than creating something out of thin air or empowering a skill, he decided to transform his own body.

Having his body reconfigured like that hurt more than getting stabbed, but it didn’t release any Creation Energy beyond his own body, which would hopefully make anyone observing the fight mistake the bone chains for a self-mutilating skill.

Zac appeared fifty meters away from the building, where he could sense the Remnant. Only, his abyssal eyes kept glancing in the direction of the blood ritual. Uona still hadn’t made her appearance after all that carnage. And there wasn’t any blood flowing up toward the sphere either. Was she stopping its formation so she could come deal with him?

He obviously didn’t want to wait and find out, so he kicked the massive door leading into the building, creating a clamor as though a massive church bell was being rung. The door didn’t break apart as he’d hoped, but it at least swung open. The shard in his mind was like a radiant sun now, ceaselessly expelling torrential amounts of energy, almost reaching the levels in the volcano.

Zac felt trapped in another nightmare, filled with thousands of wailing voices fighting for his attention. The shard was ready for war, to the point Zac could feel a primordial hunger as he stepped into the enormous chamber where the splinter waited for him. Even then, Zac found himself rooted in place as he looked at the scene inside with wide eyes.

Why did the Eidolon have his splinter!

8

MADNESS MADE REAL

Zac’s eyes shifted back and forth, his mind blanking out by the surprising scene. The building hadn’t given off any signals at all from the outside. If not for his high Luck giving him a hint of danger, and the fact that he could sense the splinter thanks to his other Remnants, he would have thought this place yet another empty building along with the dozens of others. Yet it was bustling with activity.

Well over a hundred crystals hovered in the air, the outermost half forming small circles of between five and nine crystals each. Within, the remaining crystals formed a star-shaped pattern that connected the outer circle with a larger one at the core. These crystals felt a lot like Soul Crystals, but they were as large as a man and emitted far stronger mental fluctuations.

There was also an undeniable hint of death in these crystals rather than simply Mental Energy, like how Miasma Crystals were to Nexus Crystals. Small aquamarine shrouds encircled them all, resembling small nebulas surrounding a black hole. These crystals were a treasure, but they clearly already had an owner.

Why had the Eidolon gotten themselves mixed up with the splinter?

This was the first time Zac had seen this race in person, having both heard and read the descriptions already. The Eidolon didn’t have any set shape like normal spectral cultivators, since they never had any physical bodies that formed the basis of their sense of self. Instead, they took whatever shape they wanted, shapes they simply liked or felt resonated with their path.

There were over a dozen that looked like pale-blue skulls, each with a sinister flame in their eyes. Another group resembled the gemstones that hovered in the area, though they were intangible. Many were complex patterns that made Zac think of skill fractals, and [Primal Polyglot] indicated that these shapes were somehow related to soul cultivation.

Most ultimately looked like humanoids, which partly was a matter of convenience for these beings. The other undead races were humanoid, though Zac had heard murmurs the mysterious race of ‘Founders’ were a bit different, so the Eidolon usually took on these shapes as well. It didn’t impact their cultivation at all from what he’d been told, and they felt the form was worth it if it meant not getting ostracized.

Even the ones who preferred an abstract shape would normally swap over to a humanoid avatar when meeting the other undead races. However, even if they had taken the general shapes of spectral cultivators, it was clear they were not. They were a lot like the Rahm back in the Creator Shipyard, in the sense they didn’t have any facial features.

Instead, a large fractal covered their otherwise blank faces—an insignia of their clan, or rather, their Hive. Every single one of the Eidolon had one of these marks somewhere, no matter what shape they took. Even the Eidolon who were just intangible clouds had the rune hovering in the heart of the dust.

Their Hive was a central part of their identity, and the Eidolon were a lot more close-knit than most other races. Zac didn’t exactly understand it, but it seemed as though the line between individual and collective was somewhat blurred for this race. The closest thing he could think of was the AI Hiveminds he’d seen in science fiction movies back then, though the Eidolon definitely possessed individual minds and cultivations.

An Eidolon hovered inside every outer circle of crystals, and five of them sat in the innermost circle. These five in the center all emitted extremely strong energy fluctuations, strong enough that the screaming shard in his mind was somewhat subdued by the spiritual fluctuations they radiated.

Especially powerful was one with a humanoid shape. In contrast to the others, this spectral cultivator’s form was so dense, it almost looked corporeal, and they even wore robes created with acute attention to detail. Just by their terrifying alone, it was clear this one was the leader—Aia Ouro.

Aia Ouro hadn’t made any big moves since entering the Twilight Ascent, yet they’d maintained a top ten position without breaking a sweat. And it was no surprise to Zac. While their aura wasn’t quite at the stage of Uona’s, it was extremely condensed. Not only was the leader at the Peak of the E-grade with heavy accumulations, Zac was pretty certain they also possessed a Middle-stage Dao Branch, possibly with subsidiary Daos to empower it.

And at the heart of the circle of radiant crystals controlled by Aia, was a hovering gem of absolute darkness. Below it sat a Blood Thrall that was either dead or dying, his body covered in multiple layers of dense restrictions. The thrall was completely locked in place, but Zac wasn’t sure he was even cognizant of his surroundings, as his eyes stared blankly up at the splinter.

Above the splinter, a massive being sat. It reached over ten meters in the air, an avatar with six arms like a Buddhist Asura. It even had the boundless, murderous intent of an Asura, dwarfing Zac’s own killing intent. No surprise though, considering murderous intent kept streaming up from the ground and into the crystal before it was infused into the avatar.

The huge thing sat in a meditative pose, where the upper set of arms formed a mudra that generated a sphere with an extremely strong aura of death. The bottom set of arms was the opposite, where a sphere of Pure Life hovered. It was so powerful, the Eidolon had added a layer of protection around it, as to not be affected.

In the middle, pure condensed Twilight Energy swirled, forming a coherent trinity. Strangely, the Twilight Energy was somewhat different in nature from what he encountered inside the secluded valley in the chasm. It contained terrifying amounts of killing intent and released spiritual fluctuations as well.

Zac immediately knew this was the construct the Eidolon planned on using to supplant the Realm Spirit. He couldn’t be certain, but it seemed like the Eidolon Divine Monarch cultivated some sort of Dao of Slaughter, and they wanted to instill this path into the Twilight Ocean through this Avatar, perhaps to improve the odds of succeeding in the ascension.

“Lord Black, welcome,” an androgenous voice echoed out from every direction, yet Zac somehow knew it was Aia Ouro who spoke. “May we ask why you have interrupted our work?”

“I have no interest in what’s going on here,” Zac slowly said as he tried to figure what was going on. “I have no designs on the Realm Spirit, and no master outside who wants to snatch this opportunity. But I need the Splinter of Oblivion.”

“The corrupted Remnant?” the Eidolon exclaimed with surprise before it shuddered and fiercely turned in the direction of the building with the blood orb. “That scheming little…”

“Give it to me, and I can help you out against Uona,” Zac said with a shuddering breath as stepped into the chamber, eyes glued to the Remnant. “I know you’re headed toward a collision course.”

It was so close.

Ichor ran down his nose as his whole Soul Aperture was plunged into chaos. The two Remnants in the cage had been quiet since entering this space, but now cracks spread across the fractals as they were going out of control. With another splinter so close-by, the sealed splinter no longer tried to guard the exit.

Instead, it was completely unhinged, swapping between attacking the shard and attacking the cage. The splinter in the middle of the massive array sensed its sibling as well, and it shuddered as waves of Oblivion were expelled. However, the array the Eidolon had set up was surprisingly powerful, swallowing the energy and infusing it into the avatar.

“Lord Black, please stay your hand,” the voice said with some urgency. “We are happy to give you the splinter as soon as the Realm Avatar has been successfully formed. But for now, the Remnant is integral to our array. Removing it will damage the avatar and make us lose much of the intent we have collected. Such will make us fail the mission. Just give us five hours to complete the process.”

“Move out of the way,” Zac growled, his eyes wide with hunger.

Waiting just one hour, let alone five, was completely out of the question. He’d either be dead or insane, going by how rapidly things were deteriorating in his mind. And even if he was willing to sit around until they were finished, how could he trust the words of some stranger? What if their process absorbed or damaged the splinter?

More importantly, would Uona just sit around and wait?

“Don’t force our hand, Draugr,” Aia said, a bone-chilling sharpness to their voice, to the point the whole building shook. “We have recording arrays running all across this compound. Acting against us will harm the empire’s chances of gaining another Autarch. We are well within our rights to kill.”

Zac could barely hear the Eidolon by this point, the voices in his head reaching a crescendo. What he could make out was that they wouldn’t relinquish what he needed. Uona or Aia Ouro, it didn’t matter. Anyone that barred his path was someone who was trying to get him killed, who stalled his return to Port Atwood.

Prevented him from feasting.

“Then you can all die!” Zac roared, and his whole torso opened up to display a massive maw of overlapping fangs in a bout of madness made real by the Creation in his body.

“Lunatic! Abomination!” the voice of the Eidolon leader screamed with fury as a dozen massive gemstones cracked under the pressure of Zac’s aura.

The world darkened as Zac disappeared, replaced by a torrential river that encompassed the whole array and the twenty-odd spectral cultivators within. The ghastly totem pole of [Pillar of Desolation] slowly rose, though this time it didn’t appear in the middle of the cage.

Instead, it commandeered the left half, whereas the intricate formation of gemstones held their own at the right. A few had broken apart, but the rest of the hundred-odd crystals lit up with a deathly cold light that made Zac’s soul shudder.

“Contain the Avatar and form up!” Aia Ouro shouted as their body entered one of the crystals, and a rapid change followed.

It was like reality flickered between two states, where the array and huge, six-armed Avatar existed in one, and an enormous skull in the other. The flickering stopped after less than a second, with only the skull remaining. As to where the array had gone, Zac had no idea, but there wasn’t any time to solve this particular mystery.

The skull emitted a terrifying aura, putting pressure on not only Zac’s soul hiding in the darkness, but even on his body. The scene was a reminder of the frightening natural ability of the Eidolon—the hivemind. Eidolon Hives could link their very existences due to their peculiar nature, forming natural War Arrays that far outshone anything Zac and his armies could access.

The gain thankfully wasn’t at a level where one plus one made two, but the combined projection of the group of Eidolon felt like it could match the towering aura Uona released when she’d gone all-out in the chasm. They weren’t an easy opponent, but Zac didn’t have much of an option except to fight.

He’d been hoping to stalk closer to the splinter and snatch it under the shroud of darkness, but the damn skull actually swallowed Blood Thrall and Remnant alike, hiding them within its body. Even worse, Zac felt that the projection was able to see him clearly, even though the activation of [Pillar of Desolation] allowed him to perfectly blend into the darkness.

Zac wasn’t about to be outdone, and the orb of Oblivion radiated a monstrous splendor as over twenty chains shot toward the skill. Zac silently breathed out in relief as he unleashed one skill after another. It looked like his skills considered the hivemind multiple entities even after they fused, which would make both [Pillar of Desolation] and [Deathmark] far more effective.

But the ghastly skeleton opened its mouth and released an earth-shattering shriek that could have come from the deepest level of hell. It contained a sea of anguish that ripped at the very fabric of space, containing both a terrifying amount of Mental Energy and Miasma.

The five spectral axemen that had formed turned to dust in an instant, and the shroud of [Field of Desolation] was ripped apart. Next came the chains of his cage, though not even they could withstand the might of that abyssal shriek. They fluctuated between tangible and spiritual, continuously trying to reform themselves, but the wail harmed the links even in their untouchable state.

Cracks started to appear on the statues grasping the tower itself, and Zac felt the deathly river containing the battlefield starting to lose its coherence. Even the black orb at the top of the totem pole flickered like a candle in the wind. The skill would fail at any moment, and this was clearly just the opening salvo of the skull.

There was no way.

There was simply no way he could defeat the Eidolon’s War Array unless he went all out. He’d hoped to avoid this, especially with this particular skill, but he grit his teeth as the Hidden Node in his mind opened wide, releasing a storm of Dao into his Soul Aperture. The surge from [Spiritual Void] raged in his mind as it shot toward the Dao Avatar of the Fragment of the Bodhi, and it was like a magnet for the dangerously dense Creation in his mind.

Another thick stream of Mental Energy emerged from his Soul Core, and this tremendously unstable mix of Dao and Creation rushed into the skill fractal, and from there entered the massive cage around him. The result was immediate, and Zac gaped in shock as the ghastly totem pole started to fall apart, whole statues fragmenting, prompting shards of stone to fall like rain.

Suddenly, the black orb at the top dissipated, but the absence of darkness was soon replaced by a radiant opalescent light. The next moment, a shudder went through the crumbling tower and it exploded with such force, it broke apart the attack of the skill. However, the tower hadn’t broken apart—it had been reborn.

Gothic black was replaced by alabaster white, and the hundreds of captured souls still clawed their way toward the orb at the top. While it had felt like the statues struggled to be erased in the original version of the skill, it now seemed as though the statues wanted to reach the shimmering orb to be reborn anew.

The few that were closest couldn’t withstand its splendor, and they rapidly started mutating by the chaotic waves of Creation the orb emitted. Meanwhile, the surging river around them had been replaced by a confusing and ever-changing haze, trapping them in a collapsed dimension.

Golden links shot toward the ghost, which immediately released another salvo of its own.

These links of Creation and Bodhi weren’t so easily rebuffed, and they withstood the wave of destruction as they slammed into the huge avatar. Just the touch of the links was like corrosive poison to the construct, and it started to bubble and release sizzling sounds.

Not only that, but the links started to drag the group of Eidolon toward the tower, where they would be recreated into whatever the erratic orb at the top desired.

“What!” a scream echoed from within the War Array. “This is taboo! This is sacrilege!”

Zac wasn’t in any state to respond, as his situation wasn’t as optimistic as it looked. [Pillar of Desolation] was an exceedingly complex skill, to the point he didn’t understand the skill fractal at all after having created it during his epiphany. Now, he completely subverted the core of the skill by infusing it with Life and Creation, creating some sort of mirrored version in a frantic attempt to counter the deathly attack of the ghost.

But how could such a creation in a Death-attuned skill be stable? It shouldn’t be possible at all, but it was forced together with the help of the shard and Zac’s iron will. Except the shard was the concept of continuous change taken physical form, and it resisted being forced to stay the same and power the skill.

His mind was breaking apart, but Zac forcibly held on as the golden chains dragged the struggling skull closer. A wave of blue fire containing a blistering cold shot out from its eyes, and it contained such power, cracks appeared on Zac’s Soul Core from just standing in its vicinity. If it actually hit him, his soul might shatter altogether, even with [Indomitable] and his refined soul providing him with great mental protections.

A dozen talismans appeared in his hands as two treasure rings on his hands snapped, prompting over a dozen layers of soulwarding barriers to emerge around him. It stopped his soul from being wounded, but didn’t solve his current predicament. The hivemind was too powerful, and his skill would collapse before he managed to drag them to the terrifying golden orb on top of the pillar.

He would have to take a risk if he wanted to end the battle in one go. Zac’s eyes burned with madness as he rushed forward, deciding to put it all on the line.

9

WEB OF ANCIENT MADNESS

The golden orb radiated unquestionable might, dispersing the mental undulations that assailed it. He pushed down with a sneer, and it slammed into the spectral cultivators beneath, unleashing a wave of destruction in every direction. A pained wail echoed out across the field, followed by a deadly silence.

Ykrodas swung his sword to rid it of the corrosive blood before putting it away. The square in front of him was littered with hundreds of destroyed thralls, along with the spatial aberrations indicating where the spectral cultivators of the Karabas Clan had fallen. He frowned at the scene, filled with a sense of unease.

The Karabas spectral trying to bar their progress wasn’t anything surprising. These ghosts were no doubt deathsworn of the clan, sacrifices that would provide the Clan's elders passage into the empire Heartlands. The large number of thralls was a bigger issue.

“How is she controlling this many?” he muttered with some hesitation.

Uona Noz’Valadir was unquestionably powerful, but she was ultimately just at the E-grade. Yet she’d sent over five hundred thralls their way to stall their approach. To form such a vast army of blood slaves should be pushing it, no matter if you considered the amount of Essence Blood required and the demands it put on one’s soul.

The Havarok Empire did not have much contact with the Eternal Clan, but they still knew the basics. To raise a thrall required the sacrifice of Blood Essence, which was related to their foundations. Raise too many too quickly, and it should harm her foundation, perhaps even cripple her.

Yet, by his estimations, this lone scion had raised over three thousand in total since the start of the trial. It didn’t make much sense. The Law of Balance might not be inviolable, but there was no way the Eternal Clan would dare step out of bounds like that. She had to be using something her elders prepared, and it was a problem not knowing where her limits lay.

Even if he didn’t want to admit it, there was an undeniable bridge of foundation between himself and the blood mistress. If he went in blind, he might not only get himself killed, but also ruin the plans of his ancestors.

“Report,” Ykrodas said without turning toward the captain who’d walked over.

“Twelve lost. Five to battle, seven to madness,” the man said. Then he hesitantly added, “One deserter. Jumped into the haze in the heat of battle.”

“Add the fallen to the list of martyrs. Mark the deserter’s lineage for ex-communication upon our return,” Ykrodas said. “Has the next section been broken open?”

“The acolytes are busy purifying the blood. Does young master want them to focus on progress instead?” the captain asked.

“No. There’s too much blood here. We can’t let it feed the Blood Effigy,” Ykrodas said, though it wasn’t without reluctance. “Have the men rest and fortify their heart-sealing brands while the battlefield is cleansed.”

“It will be done,” the captain nodded. “There is one more report, this one from a scout. Kataron Rissit has made his move, and he is making rapid progress through the maze with roughly fifty elite warriors. He might appear before us at the core.”

“Like he’d dare,” Ykrodas snorted. “He’s been skulking around, modifying the leylines while keeping out of harm’s way. I’m sure he’s timing things so we arrive at the same time. He does not have the guts to put himself at the forefront.”

“Perhaps he aims to free this one in addition to killing the Realm Spirit,” Orbot ventured, nodding at the Numerologist they’d dragged with them just in case.

“How could that be possible?” Ventus said with a grimace. “The Rissit Clan is part of the Starbanner Legion, while I’m a lowly acolyte of Constellation Hall. He’s a scion of an ancient family, I’m an outside hire. You know how it is in the temple. Why would he waste any effort on me?”

“A lowly acolyte with a Token of Exchange,” Ykrodas snorted. “I wonder, is the one hovering outside the trial your master?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Ventus smiled. “I might as well be blind by this point.”

“Arcaz Black again?” Ykrodas said with a raised brow. “If he’s going to make a move, he better hur—”

“It’s broken!” a sudden exclamation cut Ykrodas short, and he turned over with a frown.

The leader of the acolytes was hurrying over with confusion written all over his face.

“You’ve broken the blood ritual already?” Orbot exclaimed. “Don’t get sloppy at this juncture.”

“My lords, something has changed!” the acolyte said with a shake of his head “The soul-siphoning array is breaking apart. It is no longer being controlled by the looks of it. Not only that, the blood ritual has been stalled. It’s like a rootless tree. As long as we push a bit, it will crumble.”

“Both the blood array and the soul-siphoning array have been stalled?” Ykrodas exclaimed with shock, unable to comprehend how one of his most daunting tasks had been completed just like that. “Are you sure?”

“Chaos,” a snicker came from the side. “Chaos has arrived.”

* * *

Uona gleefully looked on as the two thorns in her side went all out in an effort to kill one another.

She still didn’t know if it really was Grandpa Nether who helped her snatch that cursed thing, but the end result was even better than she’d expected. Perhaps it had been a trap by someone meant to put her on a path of no return. Luckily, she’d heard the tale of the fall of the two aberrations that had plagued the Multiverse in the early era of the System.

There was no way she’d drink from that poisoned well, but not all could resist its call. She could barely stop herself from laughing when remembering how that arrogant ghost demanded the corrupted Remnant in return for allowing her into the City of Ancients. They had veritably hummed with greed upon sensing the unlimited potential for destruction hidden in the thing.

“You thought you would be able to pull one over on me, little ghost?” Uona snickered. “See where that got you.”

They thought their souls so unique, able to resist the taint while extracting the Remnant of its value. They hadn’t hesitated to incorporate it into their soul-siphoning array to speed up the formation of the Soul Effigy, thinking it would both bolster their plans and stall hers. Fools. It had never been her intention to use that cursed item in her Blood Effigy.

Nothing good would come from getting mixed up with that ancient madness.

But it had become the perfect method for her to take out one of the biggest obstacles in performing her mission, and without overstepping the commandments in the slightest. What could Clan Ouro say after her grandpa snatched the opportunity of ascension, especially upon witnessing the recording of Eidolon fighting Draugr, where both sides had descended into madness?

Those ghosts used that thing for a couple of weeks, yet already they lost their rationality, becoming unwilling or unable to part with the Remnant. Even in the face of an insane Draugr that managed to harm her before.

What was this ‘unable to extract it from the array’? It was just an external source of power, as replaceable as the Nether Gems they used. What ‘needing to wait five hours’? They were simply hoping she’d show up and deal with the Draugr for them. Since when was life so easy?

However, that damned Draugr was as unpredictable as ever. She’d been elated to see him shedding all cordiality in his desire to gain the Remnant, even surpassing her most optimistic scenarios of mutual destruction. But that madman possessed the power of both the aberrations. Was he actually striving toward that unachievable peak rather than the depths of Death?

Uona didn’t know how he was still alive, but he probably wasn’t long for this world. Even then, a sense of unease filled her as she looked at the transformation of the skill he used. Things were becoming harder and harder to predict with him acting this way. Though one thing was sure.

She definitely couldn’t let him get his hands on the splinter.

* * *

Deep thuds echoed from the ground as Zac finally moved from his hidden position at the edge of the cage. The prison was fast collapsing around him as he beelined toward the struggling skull, the three pygmies flying in tow.

Their bones had turned into mottled pearls since Zac found himself forced to fuse his Fragment of the Coffin into the defensive skill, and the shields the coffin-bearing pygmy conjured became more and more distorted. However, while their form was starting to grow grotesque, their defensive properties were still top-notch.

Zac swiped his hand past the tower of desolation as he passed it by, and a shudder echoed out across the area before the foundation of the totem exploded. It had been reformed into a mix of ice and molten lead through Creation, and the collision of searing heat and chilling cold resulted in a tremendous eruption.

The sky screamed and flashed in myriad colors as the totem pole toppled, swinging the orb of Creation in a precipitous arc. Zac didn’t so much as look back, but two of the chains of [Love’s Bond] had already attached themselves to the falling pillar, dragging it in the direction of the still-trapped skull.

Out of better options, Zac decided to drag the sphere of Creation to the Eidolon if he couldn’t drag the Eidolon to the sphere. The gargoyles locked to the totem pole were more than willing to help out as well, and they gleefully pulled at the golden chains even as they crumbled to dust.

The Eidolon clearly understood the danger they were in, and torrential amounts of Miasma churned in the area as a fifty-meter-wide seal appeared in front of the skull. Surrounding it were roughly one hundred aquamarine lights, each of them containing a rune of their own. Zac’s first instinct was that it was some sort of array, but he quickly realized it was an ultimate skill the Hive had unleashed.

Darkness.

He was void of thought, void of purpose. He was just a flickering light, a spark in the endless darkness. He knew he was in the middle of something, but details became increasingly difficult to grasp. His step grew heavier as their purpose failed them. Why struggle?

A roar of Creation startled Zac awake, and he was shocked to see himself missing a hand along with big chunks of flesh on his torso. His body was simply turning to dust from the undulations of that terrifying seal. Just a fraction of a second had passed, but he’d almost walked straight into the afterlife in one go.

Cold sweat ran down his back. He couldn’t stop now. Zac was forced to drink from that poisoned well yet another time, combating the waves of destruction. At least the attack wasn’t powered by true Oblivion. It was ‘just’ an extremely powerful skill performed by a peak expert, which allowed him to regenerate quicker than he was being destroyed.

The pygmy skeletons didn’t have the same luxury of nigh-endless supply of Creation, and they crumbled under the might of the skill. They did manage to help long enough, allowing Zac to reach his destination.

Veins stood out across Zac’s face, and it felt he was pulling a mountain. The pillar was obscenely heavy, even after most of it had crumbled away. But the radiant orb was just ten meters away from the huge rune, heading straight for the skull. Zac’s arms turned into a blur as over ten balls flew out, each of them exploding in unison.

All ten were [Void Balls], ripping apart and sealing space all around them now that the cage was on the verge of collapse. A final eruption from the ghastly seal exhausted the 100-odd lights surrounding it, and Zac was almost blinded with pain as his body was completely lacerated once more.

However, the huge sphere of Creation refused to be destroyed. If anything, it was almost enraged as it pushed into the seal. There was no explosion or outburst of chaotic powers, just an odd ripple as the sphere of Creation passed right through, and the seal was reduced to the same sort of dust that it turned others into.

From there, the orb of Creation slammed into the forehead of the skull. A thousand shrieks almost knocked Zac out as he reformed his broken body. Although he wasn’t the only one having a bad time. His bomb of Creation was exerting its terrifying influence on the skull, and Zac felt wave of energy after another enter him as Eidolon succumbed to the attack in droves.

Suddenly, the skull disintegrated, and a handful of Eidolon desperately flew away, their intangible bodies erratically shuddering as they tangled with an invasion of Creation. Aia Ouro was among those who managed to survive, but they were grievously wounded. Two more of the surviving Eidolon fell just a few meters away from where they started, but Zac wasn’t interested in that.

A huge stack of talismans flew out from his sleeves, and a bone-chilling cold spread across the area, sealing space itself as the temperature dropped to an almost unbearable degree. Simultaneously, Zac instilled his will into the crumbling sphere, forcing it to heed one last command.

The command wasn’t to finish off the maimed spectral cultivators, but rather to flood a particular spot on the ground in the huge chamber they’d fought inside. Zac’s eyes lit up when he saw it was a success, and a stream of opalescence roared toward the frozen spot.

Zac didn’t wait around to see the result and activated [Abyssal Phase] with the help of [Force of the Void], sparing no effort to increase his speed to the limit.

The area was a jumbled mess of broken space from the [Void Balls], frozen space from his talismans, and chaotic swirls of unfettered Creation left over by his attack. Turning into an abyssal wraith in a place like this was perhaps even more dangerous than doing so in the frenzied waters of the Twilight Chasm, but he only had one shot at this.

The skull had collapsed, and he could vaguely spot the Blood Thrall in the heart of chaos. Unsurprisingly, he’d died. His body was rapidly falling apart, partly because of the Creation, and partly because of the Remnant that hovered next to him. Zac had finally found his opportunity, and he intended to take it.

His heart filled with dismay as the disintegrating thrall melted into a pool of goop, which in turn transformed into a maw. It swallowed the Remnant in one gulp before it simply winked out of existence. The scene unfolded rapidly, to the point it looked fast even in the slowed-down environment he experienced as a wraith.

Space cracked the next moment as a familiar figure stepped out from the Void. The chaotic and frozen atmosphere that was meant to seal, or at least somewhat delay, Uona Noz’Valadir had proven utterly incapable of stopping her, and Zac knew his gambit had failed. He returned to his corporeal form a hundred meters away from the blood mistress.

“So, you actually managed to spot me, how embarrassing,” a laugh echoed out across the hall as the Splinter of Oblivion appeared in a flash of blood.

Zac only grunted in response as he furiously looked at the vampire, or rather the Remnant that hovered above her hand. Between his multiple layers of domains and the aura of Creation that had suffused the whole area, how could he miss there was another enemy hiding beneath the ground?

It was just a drop of blood hidden between two tiles, yet it wasn’t enough to escape Zac’s supercharged senses. He’d tried to both directly attack her with the leftover Creation and seal her path to the Splinter of Oblivion while he took it for himself. But she’d already been one step ahead of him, being able to use the dead thrall as a transportation device.

“You lunatics!” an infuriated voice echoed out, and Zac frowned as he spotted Aia Ouro appearing in the distance.

Their shape was the same as when Zac saw them before, but their aura was highly unstable. Not only that, but Zac could still sense remnants of Creation inside their body, which no doubt was a source of endless pain and trouble for a spectral cultivator.

“You two are running rampant in this place, caring nothing about the law. We are here as subjects of the empire, and what kind of chaos are you sowing!” the ghost sputtered.

“Truth is relative. We cannot let it be subject to the whims of the accuser,” Uona sneered. “Isn’t that what the Grand Speaker of Hive Yso said when your ilk suddenly drew back on the battlefield, causing one Autarch to be crippled and over fifty Monarchs to fall among the Eternal Clan? Who’s to say what really happened here?”

“You want to subvert the event? Do you think Hive Ouro is going to stand for this!” the ghost roared, and the whole building shook from their wrath.

“Enough. You might have been a worthy foe on the outside, but in this environment, you were never my match,” Uona said. “And now, you have less than fifteen percent of your strength remaining. Go deal with that disgusting energy inside your body or the situation might get even further out of your control.”

“This is not over,” the Eidolon growled then dissipated, leaving Uona and Zac behind.

“This has gone on long enough,” Zag said with grit teeth. “We never had an irreconcilable grudge, and we don’t have opposing goals. Give it to me and our Karma is severed. Make it any harder than it has to be, and only one of us will walk out of here alive.”

“Well, you say that,” Uona smiled, though Zac actually felt it looked a bit strained. “Yet my instincts tell me that if I give you this thing, I will definitely die. Things have been set in motion, and they will have to reach their natural conclusion.”

Zac took a deep breath before he leveled an even gaze at Uona. Abyssal eyes gazed into two sanguine orbs, two fates that had somehow come to a collision course. As the heavens so often decreed, one would have to become fertilizer to the other’s path.

“Very well.”

10

A SEED OF FEAR

Two powerful auras clashed inside the enormous chamber, but Zac’s murderous intent and Dao were undeniably surpassed by Uona’s might. It was no surprise, considering she far surpassed him both on Dao and levels. She was a true Heaven’s Chosen and was even able to avoid part of the Twilight Energy’s restriction thanks to her heritage.

The blood mistress looked a bit different from the last time they met. Her face was still as beautiful as ever, but two of her limbs were dark-red and veiny, and Zac could feel how they lacked the spirituality of the rest of her body. It was no doubt a result of getting blasted with annihilation and having regrown the limbs using some sort of technique or healing pill.

Those limbs didn’t seem nearly as complete as his own regrown limbs, but the loss didn’t appear to have had much of an effect on her aura. Zac’s heart hammered as he searched for a way to come out ahead, but he was coming up woefully short. No matter how he looked at it, his odds weren’t great.

He’d expended more than half his Miasma already, and his biggest skill had been used up. The Shard of Creation still churned out tremendous amounts of power, but he only had a quarter left of his Longevity Gem. Soon enough, he would have to pay with his life to keep using that cursed power.

Besides, he’d already lost the element of surprise. He had been hoping to blast Uona with a surge of Creation, corrupting her blood in one go to seize an opening. Now, there was little chance of that happening. She clearly knew what the Remnants were, and she would most likely figure out a way to minimize her exposure.

A seed of fear had taken root in his heart as he looked into the sanguine eyes of the vampire. This was one of the deadliest enemies he’d ever faced. Almost as though he stood before that terrifying cyborg again, but there was little chance of Uona running out of lifespan mid-fight.

Zac pushed down the fear as he tightened the grip of his axe. He’d managed to come up with a couple of gambits, but there was no telling if they would work. He would have to find the answer in the heat of the battle. The air exploded as Zac shot forward, a cascading wave of killing intent filling the air.

The domains of [Fields of Despair] and [Deathmark] were once more released, and the three pygmies reformed behind his back. Zac noticed with some surprise that their auras had risen, while their bones had gained a dark shimmer. It wasn’t something related to Creation, but rather that the skill had actually evolved after the previous battle.

It wasn’t too surprising. He’d used the skill quite a bit since entering the ocean. If anything, the upgrade was long overdue, even if E-grade skills took a lot longer time to evolve. Didn’t look like the evolution had added any new functions, but rather made it all-around stronger at the cost of slightly higher energy expenditure.

The evolution came at the right time, as ten massive orbs of blood appeared in the chamber, forming a circle almost as big as the cage of [Pillar of Desolation]. They were like sanguine suns, drowning out the darkness of [Deathmark] with a profane light. A metallic stench filled the air, and Zac found himself in a world of blood.

It was an illusory technique, yet it wasn’t. A mix of real and fake, drowning out his senses while his domains were being dismantled. Oceans of blood had appeared all around him as thousands of streams filled his vision. Zac ignored the confusion blur as he pinpointed Uona’s true location.

She’d disappeared from her spot the moment the surroundings changed, proving she didn’t want to fight him head-on. Unfortunately for her, Zac had a unique advantage in this case. No matter how strong her ability to restrain her aura, it didn’t affect the Splinter of Oblivion. It was a lighthouse beacon in this world of blood, leading him in the right direction.

As he saw it, there were only two outcomes. Either Uona kept the Remnant close, allowing him to locate her at any time. If she tried to hide it, like in a pocket of space, he would be able to snatch it and hopefully use its power to end the fight in one go.

Zac only managed to take a couple of steps toward the Remnant before his mind screamed of danger. A shield rose the moment his danger sense warned him, blocking out a lance of blood—the shield pygmy’s timing was impeccable. However, the spear was just the first of many, and Zac found himself bogged down as deadly attacks came from all around him.

Those orbs of blood were the source. They kept launching powerful attacks while he was disoriented by the blood world. It was a highly effective cage, and pretty reminiscent of Zac’s own fighting style in this class. Still, with Zac’s extreme Luck, he had an early warning system, and it lasted him long enough to activate [Abyssal Phase] without using his hidden Void Power.

His bloodline was his most important hidden card. He would have to use his Void Emperor talents where it counted.

The world of blood was still there as his surroundings shifted, but it at least slowed down remarkably, allowing Zac to freely flitter between the incoming spears as he closed in on the splinter. The chamber was just over five hundred meters wide, and it would take him less than a second to reach the seemingly unassuming pool of blood.

However, just as Zac was about to reach it, a shockingly poignant scream of mortal peril stopped him in his tracks. He hurriedly regained his corporeal form, just in time to turn [Love’s Bond] into its shield form while also conjuring another coffin-shaped barrier above his head. A pillar of red light slammed into the pond with the Remnant. Zac was right at the edge of the attack thanks to stopping, yet he found himself pushed to his knees by the pressure.

He may as well have been crushed beneath a Heavenly Punishment that had descended from above. The barrier of [Profane Exponents] only managed to weaken the attack before cracking, letting the light spill down on Zac who held up his shield to protect himself. His whole body groaned as he strained under the pressure, except he didn’t even have time to figure out how to move away before another pang of danger flared. He desperately tilted his body, but it wasn’t enough. His left lung was completely punched through by a dark-red spear.

It was better than getting a hole punched in his neck, which was where the skill was originally aimed. With the force contained in that stab, he might have been decapitated altogether, which was probably something that not even the Shard of Creation could fix.

This time, the attack wasn’t a skill, but it was rather Uona herself who appeared. She’d completely transformed, donning an exquisite plate mail of dark-red metal which covered her from head to toe. Even her fingers were protected by fine, interlocking scales that would have no problem bending, and the only thing visible from her face was two dark-red lights shining through a slit in her helmet.

Zac could tell this wasn’t a skill like his own [Vanguard of Undeath], but rather extremely High-quality equipment. Dense sets of fractals covered its surface, and Uona was clearly infusing it with a steady stream of Miasma and blood power. The armor had in turn pushed her aura to the next level, and Zac guessed its defenses were no doubt excellent as well, possibly even surpassing [Love’s Bond].

Normally, people in the lower grades wouldn’t use such gear because of the massive energy requirements to keep it powered. One’s pathways simply couldn’t supply enough and still maintain combat effectiveness, turning skill summoning and energy circulation sluggish. That would do more harm than good, making it much more practical to use defensive talismans or barrier conjuring treasures like necklaces and rings.

Only at the D-grade would one’s pathways be widened and energy supply so great that you could equip proper war gear to boost both power and defenses. Though there were some exceptions. Uona was somehow able to withstand the downsides of such demanding gear, which put Zac at even more of a disadvantage.

The pain of getting a hole punched straight through his lung was excruciating, but he found his opportunity to finally counter the blood mistress. A surge of Creation entered the vampire’s spear, overwhelming and corrupting the innate ability of the weapon to block foreign Dao. The spear started to distort, and Zac’s heart sunk when he heard a snort from within the helmet.

The next moment, the spear simply exploded as Uona disappeared in a burst of blood, perfectly avoiding the fallout. Zac wasn’t as lucky, and deep scars covered his whole body as small spatial fractures lacerated him all over. Only then did he finally manage to get out from the restrictive light.

He’d mistaken Uona’s class. He already knew that most Eternal Clan members were Vitality-based cultivators, no matter if they leaned toward physical fighting as he did or rather classical magic classes. Higher Vitality nurtured their blood, which in turn powered their class. Zac figured she was a blood mage after their last battle, focusing on Vitality and Intelligence, but he was wrong.

She was a warrior just like himself. She’d probably not bothered using her actual skills before, seeing no need to wield her spear. Uona was still not willing to stay in close-quarters with him though, probably out of fear that she’d get blasted by either Creation or Oblivion. That gave him a small breather to scramble back on his feet and reorient himself while activating [Undying Mark]. Still, the situation wasn’t looking good.

While he’d been stabbed, the splinter had been moved again. The signal now came from the opposite side of the blood world, and Uona was nowhere in sight. She was just like the spider waiting to strike, having completely seized the momentum. However, Zac noticed something interesting, and he started to formulate a battle plan.

The blood had lost some of its energy, meaning it probably took a decent toll to teleport something like a Remnant. Meanwhile, she had this immensely powerful domain running, along with her war gear. She had to be expending tremendous amounts of energy every second, to the point it had to affect even a Heaven’s Chosen of a supreme race like the Eternal Clan.

As long as he could drag out the fight, she should lose steam soon enough. Problem was, he wasn’t really in peak condition after dealing with both the thralls and the Eidolon. He could only pray that he’d last long enough to find some kind of opportunity. Until then, he would have to keep forcing her to expend more and more energy.

A storm of blood spikes was already bearing down on him, so Zac wasted no time as he started running again, this time staying in his corporeal form as he made a beeline for the splinter. He was a bit like a bull being played by a skilled matador, but the fact remained that getting close to the splinter would force Uona’s hand.

She would either have to make an appearance and rebuff him or teleport the Remnant away from him. In either case, it would put her on the defensive, forcing her to expend more of her energy. Meanwhile, there were still things to do even if he was unable to pinpoint Uona’s exact location.

The four chains of [Love’s Bond] shot forward while Zac grew into the hulking five-meter behemoth of [Vanguard of Undeath]. The skill was severely limited since it was still in F-grade, but it at least provided some protection along with a small attribute boost. Besides, it had one more very important use that might turn this fight around.

The skill forced him to use one of his spare shields since he wanted to keep his coffin in its offensive state, but it wasn’t much of a bother. In fact, it allowed him to crush a few of the incoming blood spears, as long as he was careful to not take the hits straight on with the shield. After all, his spare shield was just a Peak E-grade shield of decently sturdy materials, reinforced by an F-grade skill.

His chains shimmered with an opalescent oil as they punched into the thickest accumulations of Blood Energy Zac could pinpoint as he ran. The reaction from the pools of blood was immediate, undergoing frantic upheavals. It was no wonder—the chains were channeling [Blighted Cut] which were in turn boosted by the Fragment of the Coffin and Creation.

Zac had already confirmed that Creation was extremely effective against the Blood Thralls with their vibrant blood, and the blood arts of the Eternal Clan were somehow connected to their Blood Essence. Damaging the blood would harm Uona more than destroying most cultivators’ skills would. It was one of the few detriments to the disgustingly blessed existence that was the Eternal Clan.

Zac felt a scream of danger before he’d even reached halfway to the splinter. Uona appeared right behind him in a puff of blood, but Zac was ready. He swirled around, getting a grievous wound in his gut, narrowly avoiding getting his spine destroyed.

Uona didn’t lack for spears it seemed as she used an identical one to the weapon she sacrificed before. The armor of [Vanguard of Undeath] had been utterly incapable of even slightly impeding Uona’s strike, but Zac had already been prepared to use this opportunity to trade strikes.

His reach was even greater than Uona’s in his current form, thanks to his towering physique. His massive bardiche was even longer than Uona’s spear, and it swung down straight toward her head in an effort to end the battle in one go. The edge also gained a sanguine glow and earth-shattering weight as Zac activated two of the fractals on [Verun’s Bite].

The blood world was drowned in the bestial roar of Verun, but Uona had no intention of taking the herculean strike straight-on. Blood started to swallow her up to once more allow her to blend into the chaotic environment, but she stumbled, the blood world losing its luster. The movement skill failed, just as the bardiche was almost upon her.

It was Zac who had activated [Void Zone].

Zac had spent months of traveling alone in his submersible after leaving the chasm, and it had given him ample time to try out all kinds of things. He’d performed hundreds of experiments with his recently gained Bloodline Talent to ascertain exactly what it could and couldn’t do for him.

He found a few interesting interactions, and one of which was related to [Vanguard of Undeath]. The original [Void Zone] had a radius of slightly over two meters around his body, which barely allowed him to inundate an enemy in a melee. However, when he activated the talent in his supersized form, the aura’s radius scaled perfectly with his increase in height.

With him going from one-point-eight meters to a bit over five, so did the radius of [Void Zone] expand to almost six meters at the cost of four times as much Void Energy. Another downside was that he lost his attribute buff from [Vanguard of Undeath] and the armor became useless. But that didn’t matter to him since they weren’t helping him any longer in either case.

What did matter was that it allowed him to completely surround the blood mistress in his nullification zone, robbing her of her skills. Zac couldn’t activate any skills either, but his axe was already bearing down on his target. The sanguine luster had disappeared, and the weight turned a bit hollow, while the swing would strike before the nullification zone managed to rob the axe of the empowerment completely.

At the same time, the thousands of patterns covering Uona’s armor had dimmed, meaning its protective and empowering measures were just a shadow of its true force. Uona was frazzled by the mysterious change, but still reacted quickly as her spear rose to guard against the incoming swing.

But the preparations were too different, and there was too little time for her to adjust. The axe came down on her before she even had time to raise the spear, pushing it out of the way as the gleaming edge slammed into the armor with shocking force. The metal plates couldn’t take the abuse and cracked as Uona wailed with pain, but Zac’s full-powered attack didn’t manage to kill her.

The blood mistress managed to tilt her body to at least avoid getting her head crushed. The axe instead cut straight through her left collarbone and continued toward her heart. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite get there. Zac was burning with anxiety as he hurriedly swung again while Uona was blinded by pain, making use of the opening he created by targeting the same spot.

The armor was far sturdier than Zac anticipated even without any Miasma powering it, and the helmet looked at least three times as thick. Having felt the toughness of the equipment, he wasn’t confident he could actually cut through it without Dao or skills, so he went for the heart instead of the head. The nullification zone had completely deactivated the skills of his axe, but the armor plating was completely broken through already.

The axe bit into flesh again, and he felt a surge of elation from Verun as it greedily swallowed blood while it dug deeper. However, a sense of extreme danger filled him. Like a Primordial Beast had awakened inside Uona’s heart just as he was about to destroy it.

Zac didn’t know what happened next. One moment he was standing above Uona, ready to finish the job. The next he found himself flying through the air as the ichor in his veins churned, almost like it was boiling. But one thing was clear by the lack of energy entering his body.

He had failed.

11

OVERWHELMED

Pain ravaged Zac’s body as he soared, and the armor of [Vanguard of Undeath] had almost completely been blown apart, prompting the skill to deactivate. A wave of despair filled him as he tried to reorient himself. His trick with the supersized [Void Zone] was his best idea to take out Uona.

It should have worked.

Just what was that primal anger? Was there something inside the blood mistress’ bloodline that had been triggered by his own Bloodline Talent? Or by the threat of death? It unleashed a terrifying wave of energy, overpowering his nullification zone for an instant and setting his veins on fire.

Zac didn’t even have time to make sense of the situation before a surge of primal danger rose again, and he urgently swung his axe toward his left. It was just in time, as Uona had appeared out of nowhere with a spear of blood in hand. That wasn’t the only thing different about her either.

Until now, she’d fought steadily and methodically, carefully dismantling his defenses and seizing the momentum while mostly avoiding the extreme dangers of his Creation Energy. If he hadn’t managed to turn the tables with [Void Zone], she would have had a good chance to bleed him of his longevity before he managed to catch her.

She was a spider in a web, turning Zac’s style against him, a seasoned warrior with experience in fighting powerful foes. But now, that image of a steady warrior was gone, replaced by something… demonic.

Swirls of tainted blood surrounded the blood mistress as she had appeared in the air next to him. Her eyes were beacons, radiating waves of sanguine light, filled with an unquenchable hunger and bloodlust, and her aura was one of utter ruthlessness. There was no doubt about it; Uona had entered some sort of berserking state at the threshold of true death.

The grievous wound by her shoulder was still there, while her torso remained held together by a million small tendrils of blood that closed the wound with a speed visible to the naked eye. Her left arm hung limply to the side though, but she had no problem wielding her spear solely in her right, and it drew a vigorous arc through the air straight for him.

The two weapons clashed, and Zac was shocked at the power her attack contained. He was in an awkward position, unable to properly bring out all of his strength, but he was still shocked to find himself almost getting overwhelmed by brute force. Worse yet, Uona didn’t just display shocking strength, she’d also turned into a speed demon.

Her whole body turned into a blur the moment her first attack failed, and Zac only had time to angle his axe before a ferocious swipe struck him from above. A wave of pain radiated through Zac’s arm as he was slammed into the ground.

Zac’s body screamed in protest as he scrambled up on his feet. He had ample experience of getting flung like this, but it was a uniquely awful experience when the cobblestones were made from high-grade material. Normally, his body would win out in a clash between the ground and himself, only this time it was like getting punched a second time as he was forced to an abrupt stop when the stone refused to give way.

An acute sense of danger warned him that things had just begun, and a ruthless jagged edge shimmering in opalescence ripped the air in two as Zac activated [Gorehew] and instilled it with the Branch of the War Axe. The shard was happily releasing more and more energy, and Creation had entered the blade as well. It might look like the Remnant was helping him cope with a powerful foe, but Zac knew the truth wasn’t quite so benign.

This was what the Remnants did.

Unfettered Creation and change, no matter the cost. The shard had been locked down for months, now finding a continuous outlet of Creation. Zac could feel how the corruption was burrowing deeper into his body with every expenditure. The Remnant probably wanted Zac to keep fighting until he was a husk without a shred of remaining lifespan. At that point, it would find the next power source to continue to fuel its work.

A bloody spear clashed with the jagged edge of [Gorehew], unleashing a shockwave that swept clean any lingering remnants of the domain skills of the two. The blood world had broken apart when Uona lost connection to her Miasma, and Zac’s domains had already been ripped to shreds by the blood mistress.

He considered unleashing them again, but decided against it. They wouldn’t do much in a struggle like this, and they might prompt Uona to unleash her own skills again. Even if her power was scary, it was preferable that she decided to come into melee range. This way, he could whittle her down like always, so he was better off saving his energy for where it could make a difference.

With his two feet firmly on the ground, Zac managed to unleash a lot more power in his swing. On top of that, the Miasmic edge of [Gorehew] was essentially cursed with Creation, prompting every strike to leave some taint behind.

However, Uona was holding nothing back. Her weapon had been protected by a churning swirl of mottled blood, and the moment the taint of the Remnant entered it, she had unhesitantly discarded it. Blood was flung dozens of meters away, where it was free to morph and distort without affecting Uona at all.

The spear she used in the exchange remained unsullied that way. This was a true High-quality item, rather than another of her expendable spears. It put him under greater pressure, but Zac could only keep going, struggling along until the vampire ran out of blood.

Uona didn’t seem intent on backing away at all any longer. She’d already begun her second attack as she rid herself of the tainted blood. The spear became a blur, its bladed spearpoint rushing toward Zac’s throat. Zac was dancing right at the precipice of disaster, but he forewent blocking the attack, instead only slightly tilting his head.

A flash of heat erupted as the spear barely managed to tear a small wound in Zac’s throat. He growled with pain as he pushed past the spear toward the exposed belly of the blood mistress. However, her armored form was a whirl of unending movement, and Zac was forced to stop his lunge to avoid a kick that contained enough power to knock his head clean off.

A bone spear shot out from Zac’s elbow as he dodged, heading straight for Uona’s gut. It was filled with Creation, like a poisoned needle aimed to debilitate. The vampire didn’t seem surprised though, and the butt of the spear was somehow already crashing down at the bone spur, breaking it apart.

Zac’s furiously swung his axe in an upward arc, hoping to at least maim her leg that still retained all of its energy. But Uona overcame that by releasing the grip of her weapon and using Zac’s own momentum to push herself to the side, narrowly avoiding the bladed edge.

He somewhat hoped she’d use some sort of blood skill to block, which would have allowed him to once more make use of [Void Zone], but she wasn’t using any skills at all, probably for that very reason. Zac could still use skills though, and the three pygmies appeared behind his back.

The teeth at the back of [Verun’s Bite] ripped toward Uona’s arm as a coffin barrier appeared to block her swing. However, Zac’s eyes widened in horror when the whole area changed at the exact moment the barrier appeared. He’d been transported to hell as dozens of tendrils of condensed blood shot toward him.

There was no way for him to avoid all those attacks, and he hurriedly activated [Void Zone]. The spears lost their vigor in losing connection to Uona, and his own skill didn’t fare any better. The skeletons faded, and even an offhand swing of Uona would be able to pierce right through it.

She’d been waiting for him to activate skills of his own, just to counter him this way. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t know he wasn’t as restrained as she was. The weakened barrier broke as Uona’s spear pushed down toward Zac’s throat, but another barrier appeared immediately after, full of vigor and emitting an ancient aura.

Zac had resummoned [Profane Exponents] with the help of [Force of the Void], just like he had when he first figured out the talent, allowing him to retain its strength even while [Void Zone] was running. Meanwhile, four chains lashed out, each dripping with corrosion and Creation.

The blood mistress’ armor managed to block two of the chains, but one punctured through at a seam, while the final one entered the previously damaged part to unleash its unstable payload. Zac continued his own swing, punching two deep holes straight in her chest with the teeth that served as Verun’s counterweight.

The vampire screamed in pain and ferociously swung her spear with such vigor, Zac was forced back while the two chains that had embedded themselves in her were broken apart. Uona hurriedly backed away, and Zac’s eyes widened as two fountains of blood gushed out from where the links of [Love’s Bond] had attacked her.

It wasn’t just a trickle, but rather hundreds of liters that were being expelled from her body. Unfortunately, all of his Dao and Creation Energy he’d managed to infuse into her body were extracted as well.

“I don’t know what allows you to shield the area from the Heavens themselves,” an emotionless voice emerged from within Uona’s helmet. “But it will not save you. Nothing is infallible.”

Zac only sneered in return, but her proclamation was quickly proven somewhat prophetic. He tried similar combo attacks again, but Uona had figured out that nullification zone was only so big. The moment Zac activated the Bloodline Talent, she forcibly stepped back and unleashed a barrage of blood in return.

He simply couldn’t restrain her while she was inside the field, the power gap was just too big. The combination of [Force of the Void] and [Void Zone] did at least allow him to fight somewhat evenly against the otherwise superior Heaven’s Chosen.

Even then, Zac found himself desperately fighting just to hang on. Uona was fighting like she was possessed, holding nothing back as she pushed and pushed to rip him apart. Zac tried to fight back with the Inexorable Stance he’d formed over the past years, but how could he restrain Uona when she both outmatched him in skill and attributes?

She may as well have six arms the way she weaved her spear in an ever-changing arc of death. Even if he managed to restrict her weapon, a terrifyingly powerful punch or kick with a bladed boot would put him in his place. Zac was getting overwhelmed, even if he fought with everything in his arsenal.

The chains of [Love’s Bond] were ripping through the air in deadly arcs to restrain and strike the vampire from behind, but it was like Uona had eyes in the back of her head. Small condensed spears appeared out of nowhere and slammed into the chains just as they were about to hit her, and they contained such power, Zac felt his Spirit Tool taking continuous damage.

Zac even started to wonder if she had higher Luck than himself going by her reaction time. He kept activating [Void Zone] to catch her off-guard, but after the first time, she reacted immediately. He also unleashed sudden bursts of Creation in all sorts of ways, even turning a chunk of his flesh into a cannonball to shoot into her, trying to counter skill with chaos.

But nothing worked.

Any time he managed to infuse some Creation into her body, she expelled ten people’s worth of blood. At the same time, the blood she’d thrown away after clashing with his Creation-infused axe swings was enough to fill an Olympic pool.

Zac didn’t understand how this was possible. Was there no limit to how much energy and blood she was able to expend? He pushed [Cosmic Gaze] to the limit and found a clue mid-clash. There were two surges of Blood Energy every time she discarded a fountain of blood. One came from within her heart, making it look like she expended her Essence Blood to keep fighting.

But the second energy burst indicated that might not be the whole story. It was minute, to the point Zac wouldn’t have sensed it at all if not specifically looking for it, and it came from quite far away. It came from the direction of the blood sphere.

Was Uona somehow using the collected blood of the Blood Effigy to keep fighting? How was that possible? His thought swirled as he kept his pitched battle going, and he suddenly came to a realization. The purpose of the Blood Effigy was to link the Divine Monarch outside with the Mystic Realm, and what better way than to link a Blood Effigy and a blood cultivator than with the bloodline of the Eternal Clan?

Uona had probably activated whatever link would be used during the ascension, siphoning blood just as it would siphon a whole realm in the future.

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. But that also meant he was in deep trouble. He’d seen how much energy that sanguine egg hovering in the air contained. He would be long dead before he managed to exhaust it all. He needed to change tactics.

Zac roared as a burst of unfettered Creation was expelled from his body, ripping apart the surroundings. Uona was rampaging, but she still had enough state of mind to not needlessly take such a chaotic burst straight in the face. She flashed away to avoid the shockwave, giving Zac time to follow up on his plan.

He fled.

For the first time since kicking the large door open, Zac once more found himself outside the huge chamber after having turned tail the moment he unleashed a barrage of Creation. The square was empty, and who knew where the Eidolon had fled after getting themselves almost killed. That meant Zac wouldn’t get overrun by another angry Heaven’s Chosen, though it didn’t improve his situation much.

Getting out of the building only changed his surroundings.

“It’s futile,” the demonic voice of Uona echoed out from behind.

She didn’t get the chance to continue before a primordial roar echoed across the massive square.

The next moment, a massive hyena slammed into the blood mistress in a bout of unmatched ferocity. It was Verun who had finally made its appearance, and it almost looked like the Tool Spirit had taken a berserking pill. A storm of blood surrounded it, and its body was a mix of chaotic energies as it thrashed and clawed to shred its enemy.

Interestingly enough, it had also undergone slight alterations since appearing last. After absorbing that dense bone, the spirit had become more congealed. It felt a lot more like an actual beast now, and there was far greater heft behind its swipe as it struck Uona’s spear with such force, she was pushed back into the building.

Not only that, the mottled pattern of red streaks that covered its body ever since swallowing the dragon’s blood had changed. There were golden spots in the red, and the same was true for the bloody swirls that surrounded its legs. Kind of like the blood inside the beast’s body was becoming like Billy’s in his titanic state, although the sources were different.

The origin of the golden power wasn’t a result of swallowing Uona’s blood, but rather from the experiences in the valley. Zac could sense Pure Life inside the blood.

Verun pushing back Uona gave Zac the breather he desperately needed, and he stuffed three pills into his mouth as he kept running. Two surges of energy filled him with vigor. The lesser of the two was his Highest-quality Soldier Pill, a Pseudo D-grade to restore over 30% of his maximum reserves over the next minute.

The far more ferocious surge was something made from a [Rageroot Oak Seed], and it pushed his strength to the next level. Initially, Zac would have preferred to avoid using a pill like this in the Twilight Ocean. After all, even if it managed to help him take out Uona, there were still Aia Ouro and thousands of other powerhouses lurking in the area.

He was taking a huge gamble by eating this—he would need to be able to hide away while he endured the terrifying backlash after the effect ended. After all, turning the seed into a pill had simply made the thing easier to swallow. It did nothing to reduce the drawbacks of the item. Zac felt a bout of madness gripping his mind, to the point he almost turned around to charge the vampire who shot out through the building again.

Thankfully, the third pill had dissolved, and his mind cleared up again. It was a pill that helped dispel various negative mental states. Together with his empowered soul, it allowed him to endure the mental decay that turned him into a raging lunatic when fighting the blacksmith golem in Brazla’s trial.

A pained yowl echoed out behind him as he felt a good chunk of Verun’s energy being expended. The Tool Spirit was extremely ferocious, but it was ultimately not a match to a Peak E-grade Heaven’s Chosen. It flashed back and forth, only managing to slightly impede the vampire as she strove to catch up.

Finally, it couldn’t take it any longer and unleashed a cascading wave of bloodlust and blood that slammed into Uona, stopping her in her tracks for an instant. Zac felt the Tool Spirit return into the axe with a mix of exhaustion and reluctance, but it had accomplished the task of giving Zac the head start he needed.

“Stop!” an enraged scream echoed out, but the pills had been absorbed already, and Zac turned into an abyssal wraith.

A thousand spears shot toward him, but he wasn’t as easy to take down as when they fought in the chasm. [Abyssal Phase] had already reached Late mastery, and his attributes had been boosted by almost 30% by the berserking treasure. It gave him enough speed to avoid most of the spears, though he still found the edges of his intangible form damaged.

Soon enough, it became untenable to keep the skill going, but by that time, he’d already reached his target. It wasn’t the gate through which he entered the massive compound, but rather the ten-meter ball of blood hovering above a building very similar to the one he’d just emerged from.

Zac had never planned on actually escaping from Uona. But since she kept getting powered by this thing, his best course of action was to cut off her power at the source. As long as he could destroy this thing with a burst of Creation, she’d run out of Blood Energy soon enough. Besides, there had to be a price to be paid for continuously drawing power as she did.

Hopefully, she’d be hit by a backlash the moment this thing blew up.

“Damage that thing and you will make an enemy of the whole Eternal Clan!” Uona screamed in anger as she closed in on him like a hurricane of blood.

“Since when has Draugr feared a bunch of bloodsuckers?” Zac snorted as he punched his whole arm into the huge sanguine orb.

12

OVEREXTENDED

“Stop!” Uona screamed again.

Zac ignored her, unleashing a storm of Creation into the sphere.

At the same time, he threw out dozens of [Void Balls] with his free hand, turning the whole area around him into a veritable minefield to hamper the vampire’s advancement. It looked like the whole Mystic Realm was about to break apart as a wall of spatial tears covered the area, but even such a dangerous scene didn’t stop Uona in her tracks.

She unleashed an unhinged cascade of blood that rippled forward, and one tear after another was destabilized and crushed by the torrential amounts of energy. Zac looked on at the scene with shock, swearing at the shard to work quicker as he secured his position with the chains of [Love’s Bond].

The pygmies appeared once more, and the two defensive pygmies were immediately forced to work overtime. While the wave of blood crushed the nigh-impassable shroud of spatial tears, some blood bullets managed to pierce through, heading straight for Zac with enough force to blast a hole straight through solid steel.

The black shroud of the third pygmy shot back and forth, constantly losing some of its mass to slightly redirect the projectiles. They were filled with sanguine Dao, and thankfully Zac didn’t need to adjust their trajectory overly much. Just a little bit was enough to have them shoot into the sphere instead of him, and the ones that couldn’t be diverted, were blocked by a coffin barrier that covered his front.

There was some sort of inner barrier that shielded the core of the blood sphere. It heroically resisted the corruption while the outer layer of super-condensed blood started to morph into everything from base elements to soulless creations that almost felt like a mockery of life. Most shockingly, over thirty bodies were formed, which fell and smashed into the roof below.

Zac didn’t recognize a single one, though he didn’t believe they were random faces wrought from nowhere. More likely, they were soulless clones of people who had fallen in the City of Ancients. Some of their lingering spirituality had been dragged here along with their blood, becoming a source of inspiration to the torrent of Creation.

A few shuddered and moved, but Zac felt a deep sense of wrongness when they flopped about on the ceiling below. They were alive, yet they weren’t. It was just like what that old man in the shard-vision had come to realize. The life created by the Shards of Creation was hollow, soulless.

It was perhaps possible for the Dao of Creation to create true life, but it wasn’t possible for some Remnant shard at least. Perhaps, that was the domain of the Heavens alone. Of course, unraveling the truth of Creation wasn’t a current priority. He struggled to control the ebullient Creation Energy to break the inner restrictions of the sphere. A wave of relief filled Zac’s heart when he sensed the barrier finally give way.

Most likely, that barrier would have been able to take an all-out strike of either him or Aia Ouro. Uona might even have somehow infused it with the ability to withstand an Annihilation Sphere. But Creation didn’t destroy, it changed, and there was no way for Uona to have known he had this ability when setting up the defensive restrictions around the effigy.

A small breach had been formed when the base nature of the core was forced to transform, and Zac didn’t need to exert any effort to usher the Creation Energy as it stormed into the heart. It was already attracted by the extremely powerful energy signature that started to leak, and it rushed into the opening like a starving beast.

“No!” Uona screeched, but it was too late.

A shockwave erupted and threw Zac hundreds of meters away. He groaned in pain when he flew straight through the gauntlet of bloody attacks. Even activating [Void Zone] wasn’t enough because of his momentum, and new wounds accumulated as he was hit by one bloody bullet after another.

Next came the spatial storm, but his Bloodline Talent was thankfully able to rapidly weaken the spatial turbulence as he shot through it and into the storm of blood. Fear filled his heart as he essentially was inside one of Uona’s skills, and he kept expelling Creation Energy even at the cost of his life. The vampire didn’t actually counter, and he shot out through the other end of the bloody tide, leaving a scene of utter chaos behind.

His ears rang from the impact of the shockwave, but he could still hear the pained screams from the Heaven’s Chosen, which explained why Uona seemed incapable to retaliate. Zac slammed down on the ground, and the churning heat from the [Rageroot Oak Seed] was the only thing that allowed him to stay conscious and crawl back on his feet once more.

His left arm was broken, along with a couple of ribs, but he’d already expended all his charges of [Undying Mark]. He grimaced as he used more Creation Energy, and was beset by that deathly sense of hollowness. Most people would be able to increase their lifespan after finding a rare treasure like the Longevity Gem, yet he’d lost at least a century since picking up the shard.

He briefly wondered if he would even be able to enter the Radiant Temple any longer. They probably had some arrays to measure age over there. Would such an array call him a centennial by now? After all, this wasn’t the first time he’d been forced to use up some of his lifespan. Altogether, it had to be close to two hundred years lost, just below a tenth of his expected lifespan.

Zac would get another burst of longevity after forming his core, and another one every time he improved it to the next stage. But he’d entered a somewhat hopeless spiral where he encountered situations forcing him to give up more and more of his life to cinch a path to survival. The sacrifice had at least allowed him to keep going a bit longer, and he rushed toward the collapsed blood mistress.

A huge pool of blood had formed around her, though it didn’t look like a skill this time around. She was bleeding from both her ears and nose, and her aura had become not only a lot weaker, but also extremely unstable. The splinter was left in the building far behind him, but Zac still rushed toward Uona.

Killing the scion wasn’t his ultimate goal, but there was no telling if trying to seize the Remnant would work even if it might seem like an opportunity had presented itself. If Zac didn’t seize this opening to finish her off, he might never get the chance again. What if she was still able to transport the Remnant away in a puff of blood? Killing her was the only real option for accomplishing his goal.

However, Uona wasn’t completely out of the count, and she struggled back to her feet and started running. She didn’t run toward Zac in an effort to strike back at the one who foiled her plans. She ran for the rapidly distorting Blood Effigy.

The huge egg of blood had grown to over fifteen meters across after Zac infused the storm of Creation, and it was undergoing rapid upheavals. It wasn’t just in shape, though it did twist and distort like something was trying to break out, its aura rapidly changing. It could release a wave of scorching heat one a second, only for the deep sanguine aura to return the next.

There was a clear struggle between the Path of Blood and the ever-changing nature of Creation, and Zac knew that every transformation would rob the effigy of some of its original purpose and energy. It was probably this that Uona was trying to stop, and Zac inwardly cursed after not being able to catch up to her, even after activating [Abyssal Phase] with [Force of the Void].

She’d risked everything to unleash some sort of blood-based escape art, turning into a stream that shot straight into the huge blood egg with almost impossible speed. Even worse, Zac sensed two bursts of Blood Energy—one from within the sphere and another from behind where the splinter resided.

His suspicions were confirmed when he sensed the splinter’s presence was inside the blood orb now, instead of behind him. She’d been able to transport the splinter all along, which meant he’d made the right decision in ignoring it. Unfortunately, it didn’t help him much, considering he knew that Uona wasn’t up to any good.

Zac didn’t need to wait long to find out what the blood mistress was planning. The huge egg suddenly exploded, and chaotic currents of sanguine energy ripped into Zac and forced him out of his intangible form. A wave of pain threatened to knock him clean out despite a storm of liquid fire churning through his veins. Zac barely held on as he grimly looked at what had appeared in the bloody sphere’s stead.

It was a grotesque miscreation that looked more like a demonic effigy than an avatar of the Eternal Clan. Its face was completely distorted with seven eyes and three mouths, each having pocked tongues reaching almost all the way to the ground. The thing had no legs as it hovered in the air. Instead, there was just a fleshy mess that dangled like a cursed dress.

Its torso was unnaturally wide, making its form resemble a downward-pointing triangle. Instead of arms, the creature had hundreds of long tentacles. It was impossible to tell the thing was corporeal or blood taken shape just by observation alone. Zac had no idea if this was the intended look of the Blood Effigy or the result of his interference. But the undeniable truth was that his attempt to destroy it failed.

It did however radiate an extremely unstable aura tainted by both the Remnants, and going by Zac’s experience with Oblivion and Creation, it wouldn’t last more than a couple of minutes before collapsing. It was those minutes that would decide whether he lived or died.

A plop was followed by a wet thud as Uona was discarded from the effigy and dropped onto the hard cobblestone, her body looking extremely drained. If Zac had sensed her aura on the outside at the moment, he would have guessed she was just a Peak F-grade cultivator. Most of her armor was destroyed as well, perhaps the result of meddling with the Splinter of Oblivion.

She weakly looked up at Zac, the hatred in her eyes so powerful it almost took tangible form. Zac hesitantly looked at her, before his gaze shifted to the effigy. The splinter was inside, and he’d made his decision. Going by the unstable aura, the effigy would collapse soon. He just needed to keep his distance until that time.

But the ghastly Creation was clearly of another mind, and dozens of its tentacles rose into the air, vibrating like tuning rods. Zac looked on with shock as the whole sky turned red while the Twilight Energy in the area started to change. At the same time, the ground rumbled like an earthquake was about to occur.

Zac’s eyes widened as large wounds started to appear across his body, like the air itself was a lethal weapon. He even felt the ichor in his body being dragged out, forcing him to hurriedly heal the wounds with even more Creation Energy. He also started rotating the Fragment of the Coffin to strengthen his skin, but the efficacy was subpar at best.

Whatever the Blood Effigy was doing, it was beyond his ability to stop. Zac didn’t know if it was a domain skill or if the thing was impacting the Mystic Realm itself. Whichever the case, he was in deep trouble. Even the rampaging shard seemed to be a bit subdued by the avatar hovering in the distance.

Without hesitation, Zac started to run, this time fleeing for real. He didn’t dare to activate his movement skill considering the environment, and he pushed his legs to their limits as he rushed toward the gate. But Zac only got a hundred meters before huge red fractals appeared, crushing his hopes of escape.

The huge jagged edge of [Gorehew] appeared, infused with panic and Creation as it slammed into the bloody mark. It shuddered, but just like how Uona had dealt with Creation Energy, so did the fractal. It simply shot out a deluge of tainted blood straight in Zac’s face, pushing him back dozens of meters. When Zac got the blood out of his eyes, he saw that the barrier hadn’t weakened at all.

He either had to swap over to his human side and unleash a more powerful strike or use his Annihilation Sphere if he wanted a chance to escape. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to charge up either as his mind screamed of mortal peril. The effigy had somehow closed in on him in an instant, without so much as a ripple of energy.

Dozens of blood tentacles were already shooting toward him, and Zac desperately started to swing his axe to stave off the assault. He fought with everything he had, but the appendages were intangible and regrew faster than Zac could destroy them. At the same time, one of the mouths of the effigy opened and released a huge storm of chaotic blood in his direction.

A black haze of the pygmy skeleton tried to swallow the sanguine tempest, but the skeleton pygmy’s attempt to relocate the attack proved fruitless, which wasn’t a surprise considering it was imbued with God-knows how much energy. Furthermore, it was instilled with a sublime Dao related to blood, its stage clearly surpassing his own Dao Branch.

Out of options, Zac prepared to unleash another huge wave of Creation at the risk of irrevocably harming his foundations. But suddenly, a shudder rippled through the coffin on his back as the lid opened on its own. Zac’s eyes widened in alarm as he saw the enormous avatar of Alea make her appearance. She’d activated [Death’s Embrace] on her own, the defensive skill engraved on the lid.

Alea looked a bit different, just like Verun did before. She was bigger for one, containing far more energy. This wasn’t a surprise, considering how he’d fed her thousands of Twilight Fruits along with the Life-Death Pearls. She had even absorbed quite a bit of the extremely condensed energy inside the valley back then.

It would be shocking if she hadn’t grown stronger, especially now that she was at the precipice of waking up.

That wasn’t the only change. Just like with the primordial hyena, hazy markings now covered her skin, markings that resonated with his path. It was Death, Pure Death as he had envisioned it during the chaotic events inside the valley, where he’d denounced Twilight and confirmed his truth. This understanding was mirrored across Alea’s body, though it was just in an embryonic state.

However, even if Alea felt a lot more powerful this time around compared to when she protected him against the Lich King, Zac still wasn’t elated to see her appear. Normally, a Peak-quality and Peak-grade F-grade Tool Spirit would be enough for any battle in the E-grade, especially when activating a powerful spell with a long cooldown like this.

But this battle had far surpassed what could be expected in the E-grade. Even early-stage Hegemons would find themselves unable to contend in a struggle like this unless they had some extremely powerful tools that could make full use of their energy stores.

Yet she held on, trying to take on more and more harm as her arms were held in a wide embrace. She didn’t only block the bloody storm, she attracted the tentacles that now hid within. More and more blood was contained and condensed into a sphere of extremely condensed energy, but Zac saw that it didn’t come without a price.

One crack after another appeared on the coffin lid as similar cracks appeared on Alea’s avatar, ample proof that this situation was beyond what she could handle. A pained grimace appeared on her face, but still, she held on. Fury and helplessness filled Zac’s heart as he scrambled for a solution.

He needed power. One final burst to turn the tides. And he knew where to find it. He’d held off on it since there was no going back from this, but if he hesitated longer, [Love’s Bond] would break apart. From there, he’d just last a few seconds, especially if that ball Alea had condensed erupted.

A crack echoed in his mind as a fractal of the prison in his mind crumbled, and a deluge of stocked-up and unfiltered energy stormed like rain in a parched desert. The two Remnants didn’t wait for even a second as they escaped the cage that had held them prisoners since forming the first Glimpse of Chaos.

The splinter rushed out with the most urgency, desperately avoiding the other two Remnants as they both set off in pursuit. All three exuded huge amounts of energy, instilling Zac with a cursed power. Seeing the cracks on the coffin lid and the pained visage of the avatar had completely infuriated Zac, easily overpowering the mind-calming concoction he swallowed earlier.

He shot forward, passing the avatar as he entered the storm of blood himself. It tried to rip him apart, but he was unstoppable now that he had paid the ultimate price for strength. Either he would seize the splinter or his body would explode from the situation inside it. A huge imbalance had already been formed, where the crashing waves of Creation were almost about to completely surround the struggling splinter.

The two captive Remnants had been continuously drained and restrained over the past years, but the second shard was like a wild bucking horse filled with vigor. Furthermore, the two shards had formed some sort of resonance, where their proximity empowered one another as they drew even more energy from the Void.

The splinter wouldn’t last long, but it had started to vibrate ominously, clearly intent on going out in a final blaze of glory. Zac couldn’t let that happen. He roared as he tried to impose control. His mind felt like it was being stabbed by needles as he forcibly took charge of the bucking energies, and managed to throw them out of his body to counter the effigy.

There was no time to form any Marks of Creation or Annihilation Spheres. Every outburst came at the cost of his essence, no matter if it was body or spirit. A wave of unfettered Creation ripped the storm of blood apart. Zac was like a ghastly specter as he obliterated space itself as he moved in its wake, removing the distance between himself and the avatar.

The three bloody tongues moved with impossible speed to impale him, but he didn’t even register the pain as he furiously dug into the effigy, willing to sacrifice his body so long as he could reach his goal. He dug deeper and deeper, and finally, his hand seized a thrashing gemstone at the effigy’s core.

The last time he’d been mesmerized, tricked into putting the Splinter of Oblivion against his head. This time, he acted willingly, desperately even. A fourth surge of power joined the previous three, forming a precipitous balance in the chaos.

Zac directed one final hateful glare in Uona’s direction as the world slowed down and his consciousness was whisked away.

13

RIPPLES ON THE LAKE

A slow but steady heartbeat echoed throughout the Void, each thump vibrating with primordial Dao. For untold ages, the [Heart of Oblivion] grew, with each cycle inching closer to that impossible threshold.

Worlds were destroyed with a single breath, reality itself turned to ash with a thought. Its desire was the Heavens and its will the Earth. But as the heart grew more powerful, so did its hatred. Not even Oblivion could overcome the ancient Law of Balance, and every end had its price.

Worlds were destroyed with a single breath, but the young replaced the old. The heart was angry, but also relieved. After all, without the cycle of Samsara, endless Oblivion would be impossible. So, it moved through the cosmos in search of more sustenance to fuel its curse.

Hatred. Destruction. Desire. The heart beat, its madness spreading toward every corner of the myriad planes. Oblivion was never over.

* * *

Why was she here? Her thoughts were sluggish as she looked around the vast battlefield below. Tens of thousands of fallen warriors littered the ground, and she felt a weak recollection as she looked at the insignia on their arms.

Her gaze shifted, turning to the wretched creatures who must have been the enemies of the fallen soldiers. Many of them sported wounds that were no doubt left by the people’s army. At the same time, there were dozens of large swathes of nothingness, where neither soldier nor invader had fallen. The only clues that it wasn’t a random occurrence, were cut-off body parts lining the edge of those zones, along with a sense of familiarity she couldn’t place.

She didn’t know why, but a surge of anger filled her as she looked at the ugly faces of those things that had fought against the soldiers. Humans, they were called. She waved her hand, and nothingness followed. Hundreds of bodies were erased, never to sully her gaze again as another zone of nothingness appeared.

“Wavemistress Warna! You’re alive!” a call came from behind.

Warna, that seemed familiar, she thought as she slowly turned to the source of the sound. There were two of them. They were the same as the soldiers, wearing identical clothes and sporting the same sort of wounds. The one on the left sparked some sort of recollection, but it was a haze that dispersed as quickly as it appeared.

These two were different.

While the others were perfectly content in perpetual nothingness, these two were vibrant, a blemish on the quietude around her.

“You are different,” she slowly said, voicing her displeasure.

“Different?” the man to the left said, his tentacles shuddering hesitantly. “What do you mean? Are you okay, Mother? What is this aur—”

Another wave, and the battlefield was quiet once more. She nodded with contentment as she closed her eyes, melding with the nothingness. But even as she lay down among the others, a lingering question refused to be erased.

Who am I?

* * *

Despair filled his heart as he ran through the narrow streets, his gaze fearfully turning toward the sky in search of his pursuers. How had things come to this? He hadn’t wished for too much. He just wanted to claim a small piece of the sky for himself, joining those beings in their floating palaces.

But things had gone out of control almost immediately after finding that cursed gemstone in the depths. Power begets power, and as he waved his hands, the Heavens cried while he reaped the rewards. Only, the whispers of destruction had been too much. It was never enough, and it all felt like a nightmare when he looked back at his gruesome struggle for wealth and power.

Had it been him? Had it been the gemstone? He couldn’t even remember what his true nature was anymore. It had all been twisted and muddied as he reached for the stars. Suddenly, he found his escape blocked as a huge golden barrier appeared in front of him, while an overwhelming pressure bore down on his shoulders.

They’d found him.

“It’s futile, destroyer,” the man said. “Your path ends here.”

He looked up at the warriors in their glistening equipment, radiant beings that seemed to be one with the Heavenly Dao. This was what he wished for. To become one of these celestial beings. Yet they looked at him with loathing, with scorn, even though he wielded power comparable to their own.

He couldn’t remember what he’d been so regretful about any longer. Rage bubbled in his heart as he gazed into those loathsome eyes that were filled with condescension. As long as they were destroyed, the sky would be clear once more.

* * *

The Shard of Creation had shown Zac visions of desire and the inevitable price of giving in. The splinter instead showed him visions of despair, how all dreams turned to dust eventually. Every step forward was paid with your spirit until there was nothing left to be had. Some had fallen into madness quickly, as he almost had after taking on the first splinter.

Others held on, failing to notice how pieces of their humanity had been stripped away bit by bit. Eventually, they became hollow, mindless killing machines who only sought to destroy. Seeing those visions made Zac feel a sense of dread since most of the people hadn’t sensed their spirits decaying.

Was he the same?

Every time he used the tainted energies of the Shard of Creation, he had felt how some of his lifespan was being stolen. Meanwhile, he thought the price for using the energy of the splinter was simply the bouts of murderous intent. But what if there was more? How would he know if he had lost something?

Perhaps whole facets of his personality were gone, sacrificed for power during his struggles over the past years. It was undeniable that he was colder and more murderous today compared to the early days of the integration. He’d thought it was an unavoidable result of being thrust into the madness that was the Multiverse, but there might have been more to it.

No, it shouldn’t be. Even if he had been robbed like the people in the visions, it couldn’t have been too much. The splinter had always been caged since day one, in contrast to the two shards who both had spent some time rampaging freely inside his body. He probably hadn’t actually suffered the same fate as those in the vision, considering he almost only dealt with energy purified by the prison.

But it was a stark warning of what lay waiting in the future, especially if he was planning on collecting more sets of these cursed things. He would probably be able to recoup at least some of the lost life force with medicines or natural treasures, but could you recover from having pieces of your spirit destroyed?

It really drove home the need for him to continue working on his soul. He needed to find a way to purify the energies from the Remnants on his own, rather than relying on the prison. He couldn’t keep paying such a terrifying price every time he took advantage of these items. The cage probably wouldn’t last more than a decade, especially not after destroying another fractal.

At that time, he would be all on his own.

The visions kept flashing through Zac’s mind as he struggled to come to grips with this new knowledge, though part of his mind was occupied with the situation by his real body. Thankfully, it looked like time had slowed down for Uona as well. Otherwise, he’d be dead by now. Perhaps it was rather his perception of time that changed.

In either case, it allowed him to breathe out and plan his next step.

He still felt churning anger as he remembered the pained face of Alea and the cracks that covered [Love’s Bond]. Once again, she’d sacrificed herself to keep him safe. It was just like when he fought the Fiend Wolf or the generals of the three mini-incursions. He kept coming up short, and she was the one who had to pay the price.

At least, he’d achieved his goal. He seized the splinter. But having done so, Zac realized he hadn’t really thought things through. He had somewhat taken for granted that everything would resolve itself the moment he collected the splinter, but exactly how? The events last time were completely out of his control, and it wasn’t like the System would zap his enemies if he asked it nicely.

He needed to be in the driver’s seat this time around if he wanted to achieve his goals rather than just running the System’s errands at the cost of his own safety. Last time, the whole area had been locked down, but time hadn’t stopped as far as he could tell. He needed to reach Uona before that happened.

As long as she was next to him while forming the Glimpse of Chaos, he could still achieve what he wanted. His mind scrambled for a way, but he was forced to put those matters aside as he found himself in a familiar place.

“A fleeting moment has but passed, yet you once more stand before me,” a sigh echoed out across the cave, prompting ripples to spread through the deathly Miasma around him. “It was inevitable.”

Zac looked upon Be’Zi, and he was again shocked at was he was witnessing, just like when he found himself in front of the Aetherlord the last time. She was the Dao personified, radiating such terrifying energies of destruction that the splinter in his mind seemed like nothing but a firecracker.

If she willed it, he would be destroyed, removed from the river of time entirely. Even the Miasma around her had transformed, becoming something darker than death. Like the river of energy was the end of all existence, and stepping into it would result in true Oblivion.

“Two aspirants, two appearances, two fates interwoven,” Be’Zi muttered, prompting the Miasmic river to shudder. “To what end?”

Zac had a thousand questions rushing through his mind. How had she created the prison in his mind? What did he need to do in order to purge the latent will from the Remnants, freeing himself from the curse? But he ultimately chose to accomplish what he promised Catheya before anything else.

“It is my honor to meet you again. I have—” Zac said, but he was stopped short.

“I cannot help you again,” Be’Zi said with a shake of her head. “Doing so would be a disservice. You have chosen to walk down the Path of Oblivion, and you will need to bear the full weight of that decision. That is your only chance to reach the peak. The path is precipitous and the peak has yet to be fully restored, but cultivation has always been in defiance of the Heavens. I am confident it can be done.”

“It’s not that,” Zac said, though he had to admit he was a bit disappointed she shut him down so quickly when thinking he was about to ask for help.

He’d lost quite a few fractals since they met last, and each loss shortened the time he had before all hell broke loose. Getting the cage reinforced would have been a godsend. The two Remnants locked in the prison had pretty much provided only benefits with no demerits until now, and the longer he could keep them captives, the better he would be equipped for their unavoidable release.

But what the Draugr Autarch said was most likely true as well. Those cages were just external help, and they were only meant to be a stopgap. He would have to find a way to deal with them with his soul alone or he would eventually become like those people in the visions.

“Clan Sharva’Zi has asked me to send a message,” he explained.

“You know of my descendants? I thought you one of the lost lineages,” she exclaimed, her expression undergoing a subtle change. Zac even felt he could sense some disappointment. However, her face quickly returned to that mask of indifference that now seemed even colder after having known the far more animated Catheya for a few years. “Then you should understand I have severed my Karma with the empire.”

“Well, I’m not part of the empire either,” Zac said. “I am simply friends with your descendant, Catheya Sharva’Zi. She looks just like you. She asked me to convey this message.”

“She could smell me on your person,” Be’Zi slowly nodded. “One of the gifts of Zi.”

“They are hoping you can come back home,” Zac said. “Your descendant, Re’Zar Sharva’Zi, is nearing his end, and they have no one to take his place. Your clan is facing relegation.”

“Home… Oblivion comes for all,” Be’Zi muttered as she looked at the ceiling of the dark cave.

Zac didn’t know what she was talking about, but his heart dropped from her impassive expression. Clearly, the news of relegation didn’t seem to phase her overly much. Zac wondered what he should do in this case. It wasn’t like he could convince an Autarch to do something she wasn’t interested in.

And how could he face Catheya like this? She’d considered him their lifeline, and risked her life to get him to send this message. And now he had to tell Catheya that no help was forthcoming, that their ancestor didn’t care?

“I cannot return,” Be’Zi said as she turned back to look right at Zac, and he could feel that she gazed at him far more intently than before. “But they need not worry. I can feel that the annihilation of my kin has been abated. Ripples on the lake.”

“What?” Zac blurted, having no idea what the old Draugr was talking about.

“Two fates, two pairs climbing a broken peak. A’Zu set a goal with his fatebound, so I shall do the same. Collect five of the cursed Remnants within one hundred years, and appear before me once more. If you appear as your own, and I shall impart on you true Oblivion, unsullied by that ancient madness. If you are supplanted by the Atavism, I shall free you and return your soul to the Samsara,” Be’Zi said as she closed her eyes. “Thus, the cycle continues.”

“Atavism?” Zac asked with urgency as he felt the vision breaking apart.

“One is an eternal curse, two is a calamity. Five is Atavism, where five lingering resentments form a consciousness. To climb the broken peak, an unbreakable will is needed,” the voice of Be’Zi echoed out as the chamber twisted. “Survive, and prove you are worthy to continue climbing.”

Zac’s vision darkened until he suddenly was back in his own body. The moment his consciousness returned, he was beset by searing pain as time started up again. His body was in a horrendous state after having been impaled by the bloody tongues of the Blood Effigy, and he was covered in lacerations.

Meanwhile, two sets of Remnants flew into a frenzied battle, where the previously harried splinter fought with redoubled fury now that it had gotten reinforcements. Insidious tendrils clashed against opalescent light in the battlefield that was his body. Zac screamed from the unimaginable pain, but refused to let go of his consciousness and slip into that comforting darkness.

A shockwave of dark power erupted from within, forming a vacuum around him and setting him free from the bloody tongues. The burst of condensed Oblivion had destroyed the effigy from within, and Zac landed on the ground as the huge holes in his body healed with a speed visible to the naked eye.

He was loath to use more energy in a crude way like that, but he had to release some to at least weaken the struggling Remnants. However, such a small outburst was nothing to the ancient madness that had been unleashed, and he felt himself rapidly losing control before he even managed to get back on his feet.

Uona was still lying on the ground, looking up at him with incredulity in her eyes as the Blood Effigy started to fall apart. Seeing her filled Zac with a towering murderous intent, which was only further amplified by the [Rageroot Oak Seed] and the cascading waves of Oblivion coursing through his veins.

He wanted nothing more than to flash over and rip her apart, but he couldn’t. He knew that his embryonic plan to create the Glimpse of Chaos in her face had failed, since there was simply no way to delay what needed to be done.

A stream of Fragment of the Bodhi entered one of his shoulders and the Fragment of the Coffin the other. Life and Death, each one dragging some of their respective energy into the pathways of [Cyclic Strike]. The two streams turned into something new as they were pushed together in his chest, just like the last time he’d tried this.

Two of the Remnants entered a panicked state and tried to escape his body, but the two new additions were uncaring as they unleashed barrage after barrage at one another, even as they were drained by the funnels. The two older Remnants who were wise to what would happen next were unable to escape, as their energy had already entered the fractals.

The streams turned into an unbreakable leash as more and more was dragged into the funnels, turning them into black holes of unceasing hunger. Zac felt the terrifying buildup in his chest as the two currents refused to merge. His whole body was set ablaze, and hundreds of veins of searing heat and blistering cold covered him from his head all the way to his fingertips.

The pain only grew, and Zac felt he would go mad, but the process was quicker this time around. There were two Remnants to fuel it, though one pair had been drained for years already. The pathways had changed as well, allowing for more energy to course through. Finally, his soul had been completely remolded, allowing for a torrent of Mental Energy to speed up the process.

Then, all at once, two became one—the effect was immediate.

An immense pressure descended on the area, and Zac found himself locked in place. Even the collapsing Blood Effigy had stopped in its tracks, its cascading rain of blood suspended in the air like an intricate glass ornament. A powerful rumble shook the whole City of Ancients as a dense cloud covered the sky, pushing the Twilight Ocean away.

Golden arcs of lightning crackled within the hazy gray, each one on a completely different level compared to those that had hounded the huge snake back in the chasm. In those arcs, an impossibly vast consciousness waited, gazing down at the city like a god. Zac could feel it.

Power, supremacy, greed.

The System had once more come to collect, and Zac could feel the hunger as the glimpse was starting to form in his chest. However, Zac looked at the blood mistress in the distance, his heart filled with wrath and unwillingness.

“You want this thing, right?” Zac squeezed through gritted teeth as he forcibly pushed through the restraints, taking a step forward by siphoning some of the energy forming in his chest.

The moment a small tendril of that power entered his body, he realized why the System was so filled with desire. With Chaos, reality could be subverted. The power to create anything, to destroy anything. It had the power to overthrow fate, bring change to order. It was ever-changing, unwilling to be bound.

Yet it was there, in his body, making the impossible possible. Zac felt drunk with success and murder as his gaze returned to Uona, and this time, her eyes were filled with unbridled horror.

“If you want it, then you better give me some leeway.”

14

GREED AND CHAOS

Shock filled Uona’s heart as she saw the core arrays of the Blood Effigy simply disappear, turned into nothingness in a burst of Oblivion. All she had sacrificed… All she had done… It was for naught. Her plans ruined, the effigy destroyed.

Why had she angered that thing?

The ill-starred Draugr fell onto the ground, but not even a second passed before he crawled back to his feet, and the wounds across his body were already closing. How were you supposed to fight something like this? Someone not following the Law of Balance, wantonly drawing on cursed powers to achieve his goal. He was unkillable and with nigh-unbeatable methods of destruction.

Her final act had been one of desperation. To nullify the corruption with destruction, infusing the Remnant into the effigy to destroy the invading force, at the cost of all the remaining Essence Blood in the hidden vessel. Even if it ultimately failed, it should at least have provided enough power to annihilate that man a few times over.

Yet he managed to push straight into the effigy, using that other unholy ability at the last moment to break past the blood barrier. Now he stood there, with destruction in his eyes and corruption in his hands.

Why? Why had she listened to that voice to steal that thing, even when she’d been uncertain whether the voice actually belonged to her kin? She knew the answer—hubris. She was a chosen, standing over trillions. She even gazed upon the Bloodmother’s avatar once. This was just a trial at the frontier. How did anyone dare bar her path, even harming her? In here, she believed herself the Heavenly Law, of unmatched power and heritage.

Foolish.

She’d even been forced to ignite her bloodline to avoid death in that nullification zone, and then sacrifice her Blood Essence to stem the corruption in the effigy. She would have to be submerged in a blood pond for at least twenty years to completely recover. And she hadn’t even accomplished her goals.

The Draugr still stood while the effigy was gone, making Grandpa Nether’s mission far more difficult. Being relegated was entirely possible, between the lost momentum and her impetuous actions. However, a clap of thunder made her realize that was the least of her problems. She looked to the sky, her eyes wide with incomprehension.

What was going on! The Ruthless Heavens had descended, a true consciousness at that. Why? Why would the System shift such a significant part of its mind to this desolate corner of the Multiverse? Not even defending one’s Dao would garner such a presence in most cases, especially not an ascent at the frontier.

Yet it was here. The sky rumbled as arcs of golden lightning lit up the sky, making it impossible to draw any other conclusions. Heavenly presence weighed down on her, and she could feel the gaze of the supreme arbiter. She couldn’t get back on her feet, not that she dared stand in defiance of the Heavens themselves.

But he did.

She once more looked in his direction, only to find a monstrosity stare back. She had been right. Letting him get his hands on that cursed thing was the beginning of the end, and a terror she had never felt before filled her heart as she stared into those eyes.

She was no longer looking into the Abyss. She was gazing upon Primordial Chaos.

The long steely hair of the Draugr danced in the air, buffeted by chaotic winds that swirled around him. His eyes had lost the familiar darkness, replaced by the endlessly churning gray storm of chaos. His whole face was covered in two sets of jagged scars, forming something her mind couldn’t begin to comprehend.

Sharp pain in her mind made her shudder, and she was shocked to realize a crack on her Soul Core had appeared. Just gazing upon those markings had damaged her soul. The thunder rumbled again, this time with even greater ferocity, and Uona swore she could feel some ancient anger hidden inside.

What was the Heavens angry about? Was it him? Was it her? The array they set up in this city was technically permissible, but it was still toeing at the edge of unorthodoxy. No, it wasn’t her. A flash of golden lightning slammed into the ground, barely missing the Draugr who had somehow managed to take a step forward.

Toward her.

The sky grew darker in response, like it was infuriated at the man’s defiance. But Arcaz Black paid it no heed. His aura grew more erratic, more primordial, creating a hair-raising sensation. Something was brewing inside him, something that shouldn’t exist. At least not here, in an E-grade cultivator.

Another rumble, and the Draugr had somehow shifted position, removing half the distance between them. She hadn’t noticed him moving at all, though she wasn’t surprised. He’d swallowed both Creation and Oblivion, and Chaos was now coursing through his veins. Trying to understand the situation based on a cultivation system created by the Apostate of Order was hopeless.

Once more reality changed, and he now stood only a few dozen meters away. It was palpable now, the danger hiding within his body. Small pieces of her reality were being stripped away, turning into motes of red that escaped from her body. Just being in his proximity was deadly—she had to get away.

Uona struggled against the weight of the Heavens, but she barely managed to push herself up to a sitting position. Her desperation grew as she struggled. Such futility. It quickly became clear. Without sacrifice, there was no chance for her to survive this madness.

Seventy-five Nodes ignited, each one exploding and releasing a torrent of energy. At the same time, the nucleus condensed by her Dao and her path cracked, undoing five years of preparations and marking the loss of dozens of valuable natural treasures. Her aura rose to unprecedented heights, allowing her to finally stand up.

But she was just a candle in the wind, burning through both ends to give her a fighting chance. She still felt as weak as a mortal, and she started running away. Crippling her cultivation cemented her fall from the elite, but it was better than dying. As long as there was life, there was a way.

Her progenitor would perhaps take pity on her and help her recover her cultivation. Or perhaps, the Eternal Court would use these events to put political pressure on the Abyssal Shores, which would increase her value enough to be restored. That was her only hope.

The madman seemed occupied, barely noticing her escape as she ran toward the closest exit. But that wasn’t much of a relief as the intensity of the thunder above just kept increasing. She felt so excruciatingly slow, like her reality had been reduced to a crawl.

Finally, she managed to leave the courtyard, and the pressure gradually abated as she moved away from the epicenter of the Heavenly Descent.

Opulent mansions were replaced by a dead forest as she kept moving, but escape talismans and movement skills kept failing her. It wasn’t a surprise. Even if the whole city wasn’t suppressed, she still wouldn’t be able to control the rampant energy in her body.

“Not so fast, bloodling,” a thunderous shout erupted like a clap of thunder, and it was fury rather than fear that filled her heart.

It was that Havarok princeling making his appearance at the worst possible time. Behind him, over a hundred soldiers formed a defensive line, though all of them were on their knees or prone on the ground. Only the prince himself still stood, though he had to use his sword to remain upright under the pressure from above.

“Fool! Out of the way,” she screeched, her heart hammering with horror upon seeing her path being barred. “You’ll kill us all! He is coming!”

“I am already here,” a voice echoed, all-too-close.

Terror threatened to turn Uona mad, and the horror only intensified when she found herself unable to move, locked in place as the Heavens bore down on her with unprecedented weight. She barely managed to turn her body to look behind her.

There he stood, an aberration that shouldn’t exist—Chaos taken physical form.

“You brought this on yourself,” Arcaz Black said, and he suddenly stood right in front of her.

There were no rules to his movement. He just was. Unpredictable, unstoppable. And between his hands, it appeared—Chaos.

Her thoughts grew muted and distant as she was mesmerized by the pattern that appeared. It wasn’t as poignant of the holy ponds back home, nor as palpable as the Dao of her ancestor. Yet it contained endless mystery and the whispers of that long-forgotten era where Chaos reigned supreme.

The barriers were broken, unable to remain standing after she’d sacrificed her cultivation. Her mind strained, unable to bear the weight of the Dao. Her eyes were opened wide as she desperately tried to understand the message in that small glimpse of the peak. As long as she could just grasp a corner, she would be able to not only survive, but to gain unprecedented benefits.

She was—

* * *

Ykrodas looked on with wide eyes as a golden pillar of lightning slammed into Uona Noz’Valadir, completely extinguishing her spirit and ending her reign of terror. The first bolt was followed by a few more, until her harried body was given a reprieve as it fell to the side, exposing the man who had appeared behind her.

“If you want to live, look away,” a voice echoed in his mind. There was no hesitation as he complied.

This was beyond his scope of knowledge. This was true Heavenly Intervention, something he thought a myth. The thing that man had conjured called the Heavens to this small corner of the Multiverse. Ykrodas's heart hammered as he squeezed his eyes shut, but his vision was still lit up by lightning multiple times over until the immense pressure on his shoulders was finally lifted.

Groans echoed throughout his lines, and Ykrodas took a shuddering breath as he turned around. Most of his followers were fine, if a bit worse to the wear. However, he sighed with some helplessness upon seeing that over ten people were staring blankly ahead, their eyes milky-white and not emitting a speck of spirituality.

They had gazed upon something they shouldn’t have and paid the price of coveting something claimed by the Heavens.

Ykrodas shook his head and turned toward the source of the terrifying events. Arcaz Black stood in silence, his eyes closed as his face was turned toward the still-churning sky. Ykrodas didn’t know if he was in the middle of an epiphany or if his soul had been wounded by the Heavenly Intervention, but the Draugr’s aura was shuddering erratically as the weird patterns on his skin twisted and started to fade.

Now would perhaps be the optimal time to strike, but Ykrodas wouldn’t do such a foolish thing. He had seen the harried form of Uona as she ran for her life. Her cultivation had been destroyed, her soul damaged. Most importantly, he’d seen the horror, the sheer terror in her eyes that was so strong, it made his own heart beat faster.

This Draugr was too mysterious, too volatile. Ventus had called him Chaos incarnate, and Ykrodas only now realized just how correct he’d been. Ykrodas wouldn’t risk his life or the plans of the empire to strike at this enigma, at least unless he absolutely had to. Instead, he took the opportunity to look around.

The haze over the City of Ancients had been completely cleared by the lightning, and Ykrodas could even see the heart of the city. The central tower, the seat of the Realm Spirit. He saw how the protective rune in front of it flickered with lightning for a minute before going out completely.

Had the barrier been actively destroyed by the Heavens or had the commotion simply been the last straw to unravel that ancient protective seal? In either case, it meant the core was completely exposed, and Ykrodas cursed as he tried to find any traces of Kataron Rissit. They had entered this park roughly around the same time, yet he was nowhere to be seen.

Ykrodas was filled with a sense of urgency. He needed to move, yet he dared not pass the man in front of him, even with an army at his back. So, he could only wait, steeped in impatience, for Arcaz Black to wake up. Soon enough, the terrifying appearance of the Draugr returned to normal, the patterns gone entirely.

The dark thunderous clouds were gone as well, but Ykrodas frowned as he felt an alien aura suffuse the Twilight Energy, subtly altering it. Arcaz Black opened his eyes, and Ykrodas was bewildered when he saw the confusion on his face. It almost looked like the Draugr had woken up from a dream, but he quickly regained his wits as he turned his gaze to Ykrodas.

“Ykrodas Havarok,” he slowly said.

“You sent a message that our goals were aligned some months ago. Does that still hold?” Ykrodas asked, surprised at how hoarse his voice sounded.

“It still holds,” Arcaz nodded before his gaze shifted. “But leave him behind.”

Ykrodas’ brows scrunched as he looked at Ventus Kalavan, then they widened when they fell upon the crumpled body of Uona.

“The price that has been paid,” Ykrodas sighed before snapping his fingers, which released the fetters that held the Numerologist. “Fate is fickle.”

The slippery elf only smiled toward him before stepping to the side, though Ykrodas noted he didn’t join Arcaz’ side.

“He is free, and we will make no moves on him as long as he does not act against us again,” Ykrodas said. “Is that to your satisfaction?”

“That is fine,” the Draugr nodded.

Ykrodas hesitated, filled with burning questions. What the hell just happened? What was that thing between his hands? What other madness do you have in store? Finally, Ykrodas picked the most pertinent one. His ancestors would be able to answer the rest after seeing the recordings. “Can I ask, what is the situation at the core?”

“The Blood Effigy is destroyed, and you saw the fate of Uona yourself,” the Draugr said. “The Eidolon had built something similar, but I destroyed that as well, along with most of the ghosts. Aia Ouro is still alive, but I doubt they are in fighting condition after our battle.”

“And the Realm Spirit?” Ykrodas asked.

“It’s fine, far as I know,” Arcaz shrugged. “I never saw it.”

“I have to go. You have helped us immensely, and the Havarok Empire will remember this favor. But others are aiming to destroy the spirit, and I must protect it,” Ykrodas said.

“Well, you better hurry,” the Draugr said with a grimace.

“Why? Has the Radiant Temple already made their move? Or is it the natives?” Ykrodas frowned.

“Well, neither,” the Draugr coughed, and Ykrodas felt he almost looked queasy. “I’m talking about that.”

Ykrodas didn’t understand what the man was talking about, but he still followed with his gaze as Arcaz pointed straight toward the sky. His eyes widened with horror as he saw dozens of silvery cracks that spread with visible speed.

“We have an hour if we’re lucky. After that, the Twilight Ocean will collapse.”

* * *

Aia stabilized their mind as best as they could before cutting off the final tainted piece of their soul. They had lost over 30% of their spirit, but at least they would survive. With time and some treasures, their spirit would regrow.

A small comfort was that no matter how bad a state they were in, Uona Noz’Valadir was in a worse one. Those scenes would be imprinted on their soul for the rest of their life. That horrifying power Arcaz Black had unleashed before chasing that harlot into the streets of the City of Ancients.

It only took one look to confirm their suspicions; their placements had moved up one spot. A Heaven’s Chosen of the Eternal Clan had fallen in the frontier. Served her right for trying to entangle Hive Ouro with that madman. The moment they returned, they’ll seek an audience with the ancestors and lodge a complaint against both those lunatics.

“So this is it,” a sigh echoed out, terrifying Aia. “Seventy-eight million years, only to be ripped apart by greed and chaos.”

“Who!” they screamed, rousing their exhausted spirit.

Looking around, Aia saw him standing by another window of the building they’d chosen to hide inside, looking up at the sky. It took a second, but they suddenly realized who it was. The man looked exactly like in the pictures, but that only served to make them more confused.

“That’s impossible! You’re long gone!” Aia said with a mix of confusion and fear.

How could this man be standing here? He’d been killed so long ago. Was this a lingering resentment? That was the only thing Aia could think of, as the man had absolutely no aura at all, not a speck of spirituality.

“An Edgewalker has appeared and conjured a corner of Primordial Chaos, yet this is what you’re confused about?” he snorted. “Well, you will make a decent offering.”

“This is impossible! You can’t—” Aia said, but they didn’t get any further as space twisted, ripping their soul to shreds.

The sky rumbled, but the man only snorted in derision as he walked over and picked up the Spatial Gem of the little ghost. “What can you do to me that hasn’t already been done, you greedy old fellow?”

His gaze turned once more to the scene outside, to the walking contradiction who had regained his senses. Arcaz Black was gazing up at the sky, at the cracks that had been created by his own hands.

“Child, it has to be fate that you appear before me after all these years,” he muttered as blood started to run down his nose. “It is time we met.”

15

A LITTLE BIT OF CHAOS

Zac looked at the receding backs of the Havarok Army as they made their way toward the core of the City of Ancients. He briefly wondered what they would think upon seeing the gristly scene inside, where enough blood to fill a small lake had been expelled by the blood mistress, painting the whole courtyard red.

A sharp pain brought him back to the present, and he turned his gaze back toward the one person who remained. Ventus Kalavan. Zac still didn’t know how much about his situation this elf knew through his Dao of Numerology. Did Ventus know they’d met already, that he had two identities? Or had the elf somehow gleaned that Zac would be able to save him upon his capture?

From the expression of Ykrodas, the latter seemed to be true at least, where the elf had already made some preparations for his release. It was a real headache to deal with a mysterious ability like numerology. Part of him wanted to simply kill the elf to keep any secrets from slipping out, but his conscience wouldn’t let him.

The elf had helped him not only by warning him about the situation here, but even helped him break through in one of his Daos. Also, Zac was completely spent, and there was no way he’d best this man in a confrontation at the moment.

“Ah, Lord Black, it is a pleasure to finally meet you,” Ventus hesitantly said after the silence had stretched on for a while. “I hope my warning served you well.”

“You illuminated the path for me, and I saved you in return,” Zac grunted. “Thus, balance is restored.”

“Then I’ll take my leave, unless young master has any further instructions?” Ventus smiled.

“Be careful when meddling with fate,” Zac said. “Small actions can grow into a storm that swallows all in its path.”

Ventus froze, then wryly smiled in return. “I’ll bear that in mind. My actions were my own, unrelated to the temple.”

With that, he disappeared a puff of stardust, leaving Zac alone. He waited a few seconds before bending over to take the Spatial Ring of Uona before stowing her body. After that, he slowly walked away until he slumped down at a secluded spot with his back against a dead tree. Just exchanging a few sentences had almost been beyond what he could manage now that the surge of Chaos had left his body.

He felt like a hollow husk, especially with the side effects of the [Rageroot Oak Seed] coming to bear. That’s why he tried to give off an aura of confidence when talking to Ykrodas, and why he tried to fill the prince with some urgency. Luckily, the seal of the main tower had failed when the System unleashed its lightning, which gave the Havarok warriors pretext to hurry on their way.

Zac took a ragged breath, and his hands shook as he took out a small box. His vision was already blurred, but he managed to cram the thing inside into his mouth, swallowing it in one go. Warm streams along with an odd undulating power spread through his body, swiftly mending some of what was broken.

It was the Supreme treasure that contained the power of time, used to restore his body as much as was possible. The effect was amazing, effortlessly sweeping away the after-effects of the berserking pill, along with most of his internal wounds. It even restored some of his missing energy like it was never spent.

Of course, the damage wrought from the Remnants wasn’t something an E-grade herb could so easily fix.

Zac sighed as he looked at the wretched state of his body. More than half of his pathways were broken, and even his nodes showed damage. The healing treasure managed to stabilize the nodes and pathways a bit, but there were lingering energies that refused to be cleansed. He would barely be able to exert a tenth of his peak power at the moment, and judging by the state of his nodes, that alone was a risky endeavor.

He might worsen the damage, leading to the nodes cracking altogether. A node breaking was extremely troublesome from what he’d gathered. It could be restored, but there were few items that could expedite something like that. Most commonly, you simply had to rest up for a couple of years, slowly nurturing them and letting them regrow. If you didn’t, you’d have an imperfection in your pathways, making the formation of a core pretty much impossible.

Two strands of Chaos, that was all it took for his body to reach a state like this. Allowing such a thing into his pathways was like pouring jet fuel into a moped. The energy hadn’t actually been rampant at all, but its mere existence was lethal. It wrought more havoc without trying than the sets of Remnants did.

He turned his gaze to the cage in his mind, content to see all four Remnants locked in a hateful embrace. The moment the Glimpse of Chaos had been formed, the Remnants had been completely drained like last time, allowing him to hurriedly push them back inside. Thankfully, Ykrodas Havarok and his army had been so shocked by the spectacle and the death of Uona, they hadn’t dared interrupt the process.

A new golden fractal had appeared in the cage, replacing the one he’d destroyed to let the other two out. At the same time, the cracks that covered some of the remaining fractals had been mended, reducing the risk of leaks or accidental cracks. It wasn’t much, but it was as far as the System was willing to go by the looks of it.

Zac had hoped to extract some more benefits upon feeling the hunger of the Heavens, but that thing was just too stubborn. For one, he’d wanted the System to upgrade the cage, but he only managed to make it repair the damage that was directly related to forming the Chaos Patterns. It did, however, promise to keep doing so every time he conjured new glimpses in the future, lessening some of the pressure he felt at the prospect of gathering more.

Any more than that, it blankly refused. It almost felt like he had been talking with an insurance investigator trying to deny a claim, rather than an ancient and omniscient creation. When he failed to get any other improvements to the Remnant prison, he’d tried something else—he demanded some things related to the [Nine Reincarnations Manual].

With the events in the Twilight Ocean, it wouldn’t be long before he underwent the second reincarnation and began work on the third. He had first demanded more layers of the manual, but the System rejected the request with prejudice, and it almost zapped him with a bolt of lightning. When that failed, Zac instead tried to get the materials he needed for the fourth reincarnation.

He had the array plates for the third reincarnation ready to go, but a bustling place like the Twilight Harbor actually lacked every single one of the core materials for the array needed at the fourth layer of the Soul Strengthening Method. He’d already looked around in the Zecia Sector as well without any luck, meaning he was bound to head straight toward a bottleneck unless something changed.

Having the materials needed for the fourth reincarnation would greatly increase his chances of taking charge of these Remnants. Going by the Strength his soul had gained so far, he figured undergoing three reincarnations would put his soul at roughly the same level as a soul-cultivating elite at Peak E-grade.

That was extremely powerful, but still not at the level where he could command the Remnants. The fourth reincarnation would push his soul into the territory of the D-grade, vastly increasing his odds as it put his soul at the same grade as the Remnants.

Zac was pretty much certain he’d be able to withstand the Atavism that Be’Zi mentioned with five reincarnations. Four would be far more difficult, but it would perhaps be possible with enough preparations and supporting treasures. Unfortunately, the result was the same. A blank refusal where the System talked about the Law of Balance.

There was one more thing he managed to squeeze out that allowed him to accomplish his most immediate goal. The ability to kill Uona, who would definitely become a thorn in his side if left alone. The System helped restrain the Glimpse of Chaos and removed some of the pressure on him for almost a minute, allowing him to catch up and take her out.

Without that, he would have been stuck, frozen in place until he unleashed the glimpse into the sky.

The gains were less than he’d hoped for, but he knew he was ultimately not in the best position to haggle. There had been a Chaos Bomb brewing in his chest, and he couldn’t have been too convincing when threatening to hold it back. What was he going to do, explode and die out of spite?

But the exchange had once more proven just how much the System wanted these glimpses. It adjusted the rewards of its own quest and even played the supporting role when taking out a Heaven’s Chosen of an A-grade faction, just so it could take a look at this corner of Chaos.

Zac wouldn’t be able to make use of that fact in the short run, but hopefully, he would be able to turn that into his advantage when he found more of those Remnants. This time he lost most of his potential gains because of cashing in early, using the System’s hunger to survive that massive snake back in the chasm.

Next time, he would hold out for some treasure as well.

Still, it was a revelation of just how powerful the young elites of established factions were. Without the Shard of Creation paving the path, he would have died ten times over. Let alone Uona, Aia Ouro would have killed him before the vampire even had time to show up. Furthermore, when using the cheat-like Remnants and a berserking treasure, he’d found himself on the losing end against Uona.

The cost he had been forced to pay was shocking. Of course, that didn’t mean his prospects were all that much worse compared to Uona’s. There was still a lot of room for growth for him in the E-grade, be it levels, Dao, or skills. Meanwhile, Uona had to be at the stage where she prepared to form her Cultivator’s Core.

Besides, while the cost had been steep, it wasn’t like he was without benefits, and Zac found his gaze turn to the Spatial Ring that previously belonged to the blood mistress. It was sealed by some unknown method, and was bound to have a lot of good things, perhaps even materials that would be useful when forming his Cultivator’s Core in the future. Her body was valuable as well, for a variety of reasons.

Verun was clearly keen on drinking her blood, and the Tool Spirit had almost entered a frenzy when they fought earlier. Not only that, her body had essentially turned into a lightning rod that filled her with Heavenly Lightning, which still lingered in her body. That energy had proven pretty useful for him before, and Zac would hopefully be able to extract it with [Void Heart] later.

Thinking of a dead person as a cultivation resource bordered on unorthodoxy, but he had to grasp any opportunity that came his way as a mortal. Besides, how was this any different from raising his foes and turning them into members of his army? He’d already gone pretty far in his pursuit of power. Also, it somehow felt justifiable in this case, considering Uona called him cattle before.

There were other gains besides the loot, and Zac opened his Status Screen.

Name: Zachary Atwood

Level: 123

Class: [E-Epic] Fetters of Desolation

Race: [D] Draugr – Void Emperor (Corrupted)

Alignment: [Earth] Port Atwood – Planetary Lord

Titles: Born for Carnage, Ultimate Reaper, Luck of the Draw, Giantsbane, Disciple of David, Overpowered, Slayer of Leviathans, Adventurer, Demon Slayer I, Full of Class, Rarified Being, Trailblazer, Child of Dao, The Big 500, Planetary Aegis, One Against Many, Butcher, Progenitor Noblesse, Duplicity Core, Apex Hunter, Heaven’s Chosen, Scion of Dao, Omnidextrous, Eastern Trigram Hunt - 1st, Tyrannic Force, Achievement Hunter, The First Step, Promising Specialist, Tower of Eternity - 8th Floor, Heaven’s Triumvirate, Fated, Peak Power, Sovereign-Select, Frontrunner, Apex Progenitor, Pathstrider, Runebinder, Runic Erudition, Grand Fate

Limited Titles: Tower of Eternity Sector All-Star – 14th, Weight of Sin, Equanimity, Heart of Fire, Big Axe Gladiator

Dao: Branch of the War Axe – Early, Fragment of the Coffin – Peak, Fragment of the Bodhi – Peak

Core: [E] Duplicity

Strength: 11792 [Increase: 110%. Efficiency: 261%]

Dexterity: 4772 [Increase: 80%. Efficiency: 187%]

Endurance: 8114 [Increase: 101%. Efficiency: 250%]

Vitality: 6615 [Increase: 89%. Efficiency: 238%]

Intelligence: 1945 [Increase: 74%. Efficiency: 187%]

Wisdom: 4036 [Increase: 81%. Efficiency: 197%]

Luck: 514 [Increase: 96%. Efficiency: 208%]

Free Points: 30

Nexus Coins: [D] 933,662

He’d actually gained three full levels without trying, and without using the torrential amounts of kill energy that still filled his body. His mind was a bit fuzzy on the details, but one had been burst open when the four Remnants clashed. It had already been at the precipice of opening long ago, and the rampant energies pushed it over the edge.

Luckily, between the Supreme Healing Treasure and the [Stone of Hope], the damage wasn’t too bad. The other two nodes had been opened with him barely noticing from the two streams of Chaos. Each tendril had infused a minuscule amount into a node of their own, and the nodes had simply been open the next moment, without so much as a pop or eruption.

It was a welcome surprise, though Zac was more interested in something else. He opened the Bloodline Screen after allocating the 30 free points into Dexterity.

Bloodline: [E – Corrupted] Void Emperor

Talent: Force of the Void – 50%, Void Zone

Bloodline Nodes: [E] Void Heart, [E] Spiritual Void, [E] Purity of the Void

Nodes: [E] Quantum Gate

The two biggest gains were related to [Force of the Void] and [Quantum Gate]. The bit of Chaos that hadn’t entered his nodes had been swallowed by his bloodline, pushing it forward by a huge degree. His Bloodline Talent had been improved all the way to 50% in one go.

Unfortunately, he somewhat felt the small vortices in his cells had reached saturation. Zac couldn’t be certain, but he guessed that he wouldn’t be able to pass 50%, at least not without evolving the talents or his bloodline.

The recently discovered node had finally appeared in his Draugr form as well, and it looked like his previous theory had been correct. He needed to infuse the Hidden Node with Oblivion on his undead side to complete it. Zac had no idea whether he was simply lucky that he had the Oblivion and Creation necessary for the formation or whether any two opposing forces would do the trick.

However, as Zac looked at the small node at his sternum, he couldn’t help but feel a bit confused. As far as he could tell, it didn’t do anything. It didn’t seem interested in swallowing any energy, and it didn’t provide any attributes or abilities either. Zac hesitantly circulated a small stream of Miasma to pass by the node, but there was simply no response. It might as well have been a decoration.

Zac grimaced, wondering if it was really something meant to be used with the machinery of the Technocrats, rendering it useless for him. He wasn’t ready to give up just yet, but now wasn’t the time to experiment. Zac sighed as he closed the Status Screen and turned his gaze toward the sky.

The more pressing matter was what the hell he should do next.

The chaotic scars continued to spread across the sky, and he could sense the atmosphere itself had started to become a bit volatile. He hadn’t been lying when giving the Mystic Realm an hour before all hell broke loose. If anything, he’d been underselling just how rapidly the Mystic Realm was deteriorating.

When the Chaos coursed through his pathways, he’d somehow inherently understood what would happen next. The cracks would increase with exponential speed until the Mystic Realm destabilized and collapsed. He and everyone else would be thrown out, perhaps into the Void, perhaps into Twilight Harbor where a bunch of Divine Monarchs waited.

He had absolutely no idea how things would play out at that point. Even surviving the realm exploding felt uncertain unless the System stepped in. And even if he did, he would still be in extreme peril. Things were bound to get extremely chaotic when the realm collapsed a year early, with Alvod and the other Monarchs struggling to seize whatever it was that could help them ascend.

Zac remembered the terrifying shockwaves when the Voridis A’Heliophos fought against the Collector and the Administrator inside the Mystic Realm back on Earth. Just some errant bursts of energy had been enough to maim him. As bad as that was, it was nothing compared to what waited outside.

At least three Divine Monarchs were going all out to seize the chance at Autarchy, with even more Monarchs entering the fray to help out their side. Any errant strand of energy from such a struggle was enough to turn him to dust a hundred times over.

Zac sighed and took out the communication crystal to Catheya and infused a small amount of Miasma into it as he held a Supreme Miasma Crystal in his free hand. The connection was opened almost instantly, indicating she had probably been waiting for him to call.

“It’s me,” Zac said with a hoarse voice.

“Are you okay?” a worried voice emerged from the other side.

“A bit worse for the wear, but I’ll survive,” Zac grunted as his gaze shifted from the Spatial Ring where Uona’s lifeless body was stowed away, to the fracturing sky above. “More importantly, you need to prepare yourself. Things got a bit out of hand, and the Mystic Realm will collapse in less than an hour.”

Zac’s mouth tugged upward, as he could hear a muted groan on the other side.

“You said ‘a little bit chaotic’,” Catheya sighed, the exasperation so palpable it could be felt through the communication crystal. “I guess I should have understood we have very different definitions of what that entailed.”

16

COMPANY

Zac smiled as he let Catheya release some steam through the communication crystal. She’d probably been under a lot of pressure the past days, and letting her lecture him a bit actually helped him readjust his psyche. He could feel how much of a mess his mental state was, a chaotic skein with fraying ends.

It was no wonder, with how brutal the battle had been.

This was the first time he’d been pushed like this since fighting Void’s Disciple, where death loomed at every corner and there was no way for him to back down. He had been close to dying many times over down in the chasm as well, but it was far more palpable when getting pushed beyond your limit in a head-on collision against a peer.

“I guess that’s par for the course with you,” Catheya continued through the crystal, her volume growing louder. “Why wouldn’t you destroy a Mystic Realm or two? Most people would be happy with the title and the treasures they harvested, but I guess they simply lack ambition of a greater man.”

“Well, you know—” Zac coughed and immediately grimaced when pain flared up in his side.

“I’m guessing Uona fell by your hands when the Heavens descended,” Catheya muttered.

“I’m sorry to implicate you guys. She gave me no option,” Zac sighed.

“That’s fine. We both knew this was a likely outcome by how things turned out. I’m more shocked you actually managed to take her out than anything else,” Catheya said. “But tell me, did you kill the Eidolon as well or was that someone else?”

“Oh? Aia Ouro died?” Zac exclaimed with surprise. “I thought they would survive my attack after they fled.”

“So you did battle the ghost,” Catheya groaned. “And their preparations on the inside?”

“Destroyed. By me,” Zac admitted.

“So you've now managed to infuriate not one, but two, of the great factions of the Undead Empire?” Catheya groaned. “A shame there are no Reavers around—you could have aimed for the trifecta. I already dread the day you visit the Heartlands. I wouldn’t be surprised if you managed to enrage one of the Founders.”

Zac snorted in response as he kept focusing on restoring his body, while doing some field repair of his pathways with the help of [Spiritual Anchor]. It would take weeks of work to restore the pathways, but some small alterations would at least lessen the amount of Miasma he was leaking every second.

“Well, what’s done is done,” Catheya relented. “Do you need me to head over?”

“No, that’s okay,” Zac said after some hesitation.

He didn’t know exactly how things would play out when the Mystic Realm broke apart, but he figured it might be a bad idea to get thrown out together with the Draugr scion. Her master would probably move to either capture or save her, depending on exactly where his allegiances lay. She, in turn, would inform him that she had valuable intelligence for the empire.

Her master wouldn’t be able to kill her due to the compulsions, and he’d be forced to take her to an ambassador or representative without any undue delay. Catheya would essentially use the information about him as a method to protect herself in case her master turned traitor against the Sharva’Zi Clan.

It was the least Zac could do after all the trouble he caused her and her clan by killing not only Uona, but even Aia Ouro by the looks of it.

“However, the arrays in the town have broken apart. The inner mansions probably have a lot of good things,” Zac added. “It might be a good idea to continue your looting in here.”

“Really?” Catheya exclaimed, some excitement apparent in her voice. “Well, if the realm is going to collapse in an hour, I might as well give it a go. If I’m going to get ripped apart by the Void, I’d prefer to die a wealthy woman. Besides, we have long run out of targets here on the outside.”

Zac wasn’t surprised. While he entered the City of Ancients, Catheya had enacted a plan of her own. She wasn’t willing to enter the obvious trap the city represented, but that didn’t mean she was simply going to sit around. She instead decided to target cultivators on the outside.

Many had come for the treasures in the City of Ancients, but fewer than half had ultimately entered. There had been quite a few enterprising individuals who set up shop, and they had absolutely cleaned up by profiteering on the cultivators preparing to enter the city. They’d charged exorbitant prices for things like defensive talismans or puppets and the like, often taking the natural treasures of the Twilight Ocean as payment.

Catheya robbed these merchants whose Spatial Rings were overflowing with Low and Middle-grade treasures.

“The Havarok and Radiant Temple have entered the core of the city by the looks of it. You’ll have to contend with the regular elites of the Mystic Realm,” Zac added.

“That’s fine. Our little trio has become pretty adept at fleeing by this point,” Catheya laughed at the other side. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine,” Zac grunted, though his heart lurched. “Well, I have to go now. We’ll talk a bit later.”

Zac wouldn’t have minded talking with the Draugr a bit longer, but something had changed. He wasn’t alone in the forest any longer.

He cut the connection to the communication crystal while bracing himself in case he would have to fight the new arrival. A middle-aged man had appeared out of nowhere right in front of him, without producing as much as a ripple of energy. Zac’s danger sense didn’t give off any indication of mortal danger upon the arrival of the man, but he still felt an immense sense of pressure as he stared into his eyes.

The cultivator was a variant human, judging by his appearance and clothes, but he didn’t feel like a trial-taker. The man rather gave off the indomitable aura of an old master, even if he didn’t emit a speck of spirituality. However, while he looked pretty imposing, his state was fairly wretched.

Blood ran down his nose and from the side of his mouth, and small cracks covered his face and exposed hands. Zac frowned when he sensed the familiar aura in the wounds, and he quickly formed a hypothesis, one that was all-but-confirmed after a few seconds.

“You are the Realm Spirit everyone has been looking for,” Zac hoarsely said.

“Correct,” the man nodded. “Of course, this is just an Avatar. My true self is still in the castle. You really did a number on my body just now.”

Zac was about to answer, but he was shocked silent when the man shuddered until the visage carried the telltale pallid complexion of a Revenant. Zac’s mind short-circuited as he beheld the transformation. Was the Realm Spirit like him, someone with two races?

“I see your thoughts are racing, but, I’m sorry. We are not the same, young man,” the middle-aged man smiled. “I am not the real thing.”

“The same?” Zac hesitantly said.

“There’s no point to play ignorant with me. You have been walking inside my body for years,” the man laughed, his voice having a slightly different cadence since changing form. “I realized something was different about you the moment you entered the realm. Truthfully, I most likely wouldn’t have noticed you if not for the fact you brought that ancient Dao Purifier inside. Since then, I have been keeping watch.

“It was only after you transformed below the Living Pulse I could confirm your situation. Don’t worry. No one, not even the usurper hiding in the depths of this realm, knows of your true situation. In fact, I have helped obfuscate your exact situation from Alvod Jondir’s gaze.”

Zac knew the jig was up the moment he mentioned the Living Pulse, and he inwardly cursed Va Tapek again for having him mule such a dangerous item into the trial. The Living Pulse was where he swapped races the first time to save Catheya, and where he first deactivated his array. Thankfully, it looked like the Realm Spirit didn’t care, but Zac still felt extremely exposed with his secrets out in the open like this.

“Don’t look so worried. Us meeting is a good thing for you. Here, a small greeting gift,” the man said and threw over a small gemstone.

“What’s this?” Zac asked with confusion as he looked at the unfamiliar gem.

“It is the Spatial Treasure of the ghost you fought earlier,” the man explained.

“Aia Ouro?” Zac said as he looked at the man suspiciously.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he snorted. “I’m just a Realm Spirit, how am I supposed to kill someone? The ghost hid inside one of the side buildings and started to cut off parts of their spirit body to rid themselves of the energy you infused into them. But their luck was truly lacking. The moment you called on the Heavens, they were restrained and lost control. The Creation Energy consumed them.”

Zac looked at the Realm Spirit with wide eyes, before he wryly shook his head. Aia Ouro really had bad luck. The situation the man described sounded perfectly plausible. Of course, it was possible the Realm Spirit was lying and finished off the ghost himself. He knew too little about Realm Spirits to know whether that was possible or not.

He’d tried to find out more since arriving at the settlements outside the City of Ancients, but the little he managed to gather seemed mostly hearsay. That alone proved they were extremely rare, and definitely not something all Mystic Realms or worlds possessed. They were supposed to be a unique type of latent consciousness that could awaken inside a Realm Core or World Core, somewhat resembling a Tool Spirit.

These beings would essentially turn the planet into a living entity, depending on how you defined living, which could absorb energy quicker than a normal world. This would provide all sorts of benefits for the natives, like increased energy density. More importantly, many believed a Realm Spirit could actually evolve planets by themselves, something that generally needed extremely precious treasures or help from the System.

However, the appearance of this man didn’t seem like what the missives described. Realm Spirits weren’t supposed to be this human. They could ‘live’ for billions of years, as long as a planet, so their consciousness was supposed to be completely different compared to a cultivator. Communicating with them was supposed to be like trying to communicate with nature itself, and this situation clearly didn’t fit the bill.

Considering that most of what he knew was a bit off, it was impossible to tell whether this Realm Spirit was lying or not. In either case, things had already progressed to this point. He’d been willing to take the blame for Aia Ouro’s death anyway, but now he at least got his hands on their Spatial Tool.

“Thank you,” Zac slowly said as he stowed away the crystal. “But I’m assuming you didn’t just come to have a conversation and bestow gifts upon me.”

“Why not?” the man smiled. “My life is ending soon enough, isn’t my last moments better spent in company than alone?”

Zac didn’t answer the question and only kept his gaze level.

“Alright, I do have something important to discuss with you,” the man said, changing back to his human form mid-sentence. “But first, we should take a walk.”

“A walk?” Zac repeated with a raised brow.

“A group of eight warriors is closing in, four of which are possessing Dao Branches. I assume you don’t wish to encounter them in your current state?”

Zac worriedly looked through the forest. He couldn’t see anyone, but his vision was limited. It wasn’t impossible someone was approaching now that the arrays covering the city had broken down. Most people would probably still be out of their minds from the killing arrays, but the elites would likely make a play.

He was also pretty exposed since he only managed to take a few steps before toppling over. Zac groaned as he got back on his feet, barely able to perform the task by using a random spear from his Spatial Ring as a cane. Normally, he would have used the chains of [Love’s Bond] to move when his legs wouldn’t listen, but for now, that was impossible.

Alea had fled into the coffin the moment the Heavens appeared, taking that terrifying ball of blood and Oblivion with her. Since then, Zac hadn’t sensed her presence in the slightest, and he looked over his shoulder at the coffin with worry. Cracks covered its whole surface, and it emitted dangerous fluctuations.

“The little girl is ferociously holding on,” the Realm Spirit sighed. “But she has overextended herself.”

“Can you tell her situation? Do you know anything that could help?” Zac hurriedly asked.

“I guess you could say we are kindred spirits,” the man smiled. “I do have a solution. But for now, let’s walk.”

Hearing that the Realm Spirit might be able to help Alea, he ambled forward to keep up. Following the Realm Spirit was a bit risky, but if it wanted to attack him, it would probably already have done so. The fact he could help Alea trumped most of his misgivings, not to mention it might be able to send him out of this place early.

“Kindred spirits?” Zac asked curiously as they walked toward the core, though Zac noticed the Realm Spirit didn’t move exactly toward the central castle.

“Just like the little demoness, I was once a cultivator. Two, actually,” the Realm Spirit explained. “Of course, so little of my original identities survived, that I’m more of a new being than an old.”

“So, you were a cultivator?” Zac exclaimed, but he wasn’t overly surprised.

Seeing the appearance of this man made Zac think of the Eveningtide Asura and of how he’d become one with Twilight. It somewhat seemed that Alvod Jondir was trying to walk down the same path as this Realm Spirit or perhaps use their resemblance to access the core of the Mystic Realm.

“This place, which is now called the Twilight Ocean, was once part of my inner world,” the man sighed, swapping over to a Revenant. “The two faces you see me wear belong to two First-Step Autarchs that fought to the death extremely long ago. Because of a certain treasure we fought over, our deaths weren’t the end.

“A small part of our inner worlds survived and fused into this Mystic Realm. Innumerable years later, my two siblings and I woke up, each one controlling one version of this realm. Now, I am the last one to remain, and I will join the others soon enough.” The man sighed. “Before that, I have some matters to attend to.”

“Then, this is what the inner world of an Autarch looks like?” Zac muttered as he looked around with wide eyes.

“Hardly. We had both defended our Dao and connected our Inner Worlds to the Heavens. Our inner worlds were far grander in both depth and scale compared to this desolate Mystic Realm,” he snorted. “Here we are.”

Zac looked around with interest. The Realm Spirit had taken him to one of the mansions next to the towering inner wall. Zac hadn’t passed this particular one, though it resembled most of the other mansions he suspected to have been lived-in by undead cultivators.

“This town was created in an attempt to live as a cultivator once more after waking up,” the man sighed as he looked around. “Alas, some things were not meant to be. Time is different for a Realm Spirit. I fell asleep, and when I woke up, everyone had been dead for a million years. Some time later, I was modified by the System to become a trial ground.”

They entered the courtyard, and Zac felt a bit of trepidation when he saw the dispersing haze congeal behind them, blocking his escape.

“Just a small measure to make the treasure hunters look elsewhere while we talk,” the Realm Spirit explained. “My time is running short, so I will make it brief. I have a task I would like to entrust you.”

Zac looked hesitantly at the Realm Spirit, trying to suss out his motives.

“I’m sorry,” Zac eventually said, steeling himself for an eventual outburst. “I have run myself ragged completing tasks for old mons—ehm, masters. You’ve seen the state of my body. I can barely help myself at the moment, let alone others. I will have to decline.”

“Well, that’s a shame,” the Realm Spirit said with a raised brow. “But what if the task I’m talking about is for you to take a priceless treasure away from here? Something marvelous beyond compare, and something that should be highly beneficial for someone with your unique situation.”

Zac blankly looked at the Realm Spirit for almost ten seconds before he released a deep sigh.

“Alright, what do you need me to do?”

17

MARVELOUS BEYOND COMPARE

Zac’s body was on the verge of shutting down, but he couldn’t stop himself from accepting such a lucrative task. How could he possibly say no to a treasure that a former Autarch called marvelous beyond compare? He might form a Heart Demon if he turned away now, forever wondering how things would have panned out if he hadn’t backed down.

“I knew I could count on you, young man,” the Realm Spirit smiled. “By the way, you can call me Qi’Sar.”

“First of all, tell me how to help my Tool Spirit,” Zac said, trying to remember if he had heard that name before.

He drew a complete blank, as there was nothing of the sort mentioned in the missives he’d poured through, and neither had Catheya mentioned it.

“Her grade is too low, and she is overwhelmed by the ferocity of the energies she has absorbed. It is slowly tearing her apart as she is unable to refine the energies quickly enough,” Qi’Sar said. “In her current state, she will last a few days at the best. Luckily, there are many ways to help her. The easiest method is to provide something that will seal the energy temporarily, allowing her to take out and refine it bit by bit.”

Zac nodded in agreement, feeling the method feasible. After all, that was exactly what he was doing with the Remnants in his mind. The fact he had a few days was a relief as well, as he really needed to rest for a few more minutes.

“I just so happen to possess some refined Temporal Crystals. Have the Tool Spirit absorb a few of them, and she will be able to seal the rampant energies within a Temporal Field, drastically slowing the rate of destruction. It should be enough for her to refine them,” the Realm Spirit continued.

“Perfect,” Zac exclaimed. “Where are they?”

“I do not have them on me,” Qi’Sar smiled. “Remember, I am just here as a projection. Lucky for you, they are right by the treasure. I have used quite a few Temporal Crystals to speed up its maturity so it could be taken away before this realm collapsed.”

“Just what is this treasure you want me to take?” Zac asked curiously.

“All in time,” the Realm Spirit said.

Zac frowned in annoyance, but his brows smoothed out. It was a bit odd he didn’t want to say, but hearing the explanation gave some indication of what kind of treasure it was. From the sounds of it, the item was something living rather than a fully-formed treasure. Otherwise, Qi’Sar wouldn’t have needed to put it in a Temporal Field to mature it.

“Wait, it’s not the item the Divine Monarchs are fighting over?” Zac asked.

“No,” the Realm Spirit said with a shake of his head. “They are fighting over the true core of this Mystic Realm, a mutated World Core that contains echoes of the Daos my two predecessors possessed before dying. They are trying to take my place and directly connect with the core, which would allow them to more easily transform and absorb the Dao within. Along with some other preparations, they have a decent chance of calling down the old Heavens.”

Zac’s heart beat an extra time when he thought of a core containing the Dao insights of an Autarch. Even if he could get a small whiff of that, he would probably push all three of his Daos to the peak of what the E-grade could withstand. Even that white light that passed through him in the valley would probably be unable to match up to something like that.

“Don’t even think about it,” the Realm Spirit snorted when he saw the greed in Zac’s eyes. “Even if I helped you get close to take it, you would only get yourself killed. A sense of propriety is important for a cultivator, to know when to advance and when to back away.”

“Alright, I get it,” Zac muttered as he sat down on a dusty chair, not forgetting to keep restoring his body as best as he could. “Are we in a hurry?”

“We have some time, but I cannot linger too long,” Qi’Sar said. “The System has deactivated the real restrictions of my castle, allowing the children to slowly make their way toward my sanctum. I need to return within fifteen minutes to stop them from trapping my spirit. I want to die on my own terms.”

“Fifteen minutes,” Zac sighed. “Barely enough to make some field repairs. This better be worth it.”

“Don’t worry, you will not be disappointed. The item I want you to take away is of lower grade than the World Core, but it might be just as useful to an Edgewalker such as yourself.”

“An Edgewalker? What?” Zac said with confusion.

“It is what you call people such as yourself, beings that innately hold two opposing paths. You walk at the edge between two grand Daos,” the Realm Spirit explained.

“There are more people like me?” Zac asked with a mix of relief and disappointment.

“What is truly unique in the Multiverse? Though I can’t remember ever encountering one such as yourself before. It should be quite rare, especially Life-Death Edgewalkers.”

“How would the Undead Empire react to someone like me?”

“I am afraid I do not know. Truthfully, I thought you a covert member of the empire, sent here because of your unique constitution. Too little remains of my memories of the inner workings of the Undead Empire. Too much time has passed,” the man said with a shake of his head. “But your constitution and the fact that you have already climbed that broken peak with some success should warrant some nurturing.”

“The Dao of Chaos?” Zac muttered. “How come everyone calls it a broken peak? Is it because it’s unorthodox?”

“No Dao is unorthodox,” the Realm Spirit rejected. “The Dao is the Dao. However, as the eras turn and time itself grinds to dust, the balance of the Heavens shift. Eventually, a cataclysm will take place, one where the Heavens themselves are ripped apart.”

Zac listened with confusion, not quite getting it. But he ventured a guess. “Like the Dark Age preceding the System?”

“The birth of the System cannot truly be considered such an event,” the Realm Spirit said. “This current era and the era of Emperor Limitless, they are one and the same, far too short timespans to be considered eras on their own.”

“But the System has been around for an extreme amount of time, far longer than even the lifespans of A-grade cultivators,” Zac countered. “That’s not enough to be considered an era?”

“The lifespan of those at the peak can seem endless to most, but it cannot compare to the age of an era. When Emperor Limitless began his mad experiment, the era was still in its infancy, and the Heavens were still recovering from the previous cataclysm. Most likely, that’s the only reason his attempt succeeded.” The Realm Spirit smiled.

Zac’s eyes were wide as he listened with rapt attention, almost forgetting the wretched state of his body and Alea’s situation. This Realm Spirit clearly had access to knowledge far beyond the scope of the frontier. This was a huge opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the Multiverse and the Dao of Chaos.

“Most factions call this current era the Era of Unification. A harmonious balance of Dao, centered around the Dao of Order,” the Realm Spirit continued.

“But the Apostate of Order was just the third one to appear?” Zac said with confusion. “How can his Dao be the main one?”

“He is the first true Apostate. The Beast Progenitor was on equal standing to Emperor Limitless even before the System was born, most likely even more powerful. They simply infused their Dao into the System to give the myriad beasts of the Multiverse a path in this new reality. As for the First Defier, he was an aberration that likely will not appear again. Talomis A’Pakrava, the Apostate of Order, was the first one to reach the peak under the guidance of the System.”

“How is this related to the Dao of Chaos?” Zac asked.

“The Order and Chaos, two opposite realities,” the Realm Spirit mused. “This era is one where Dao is harmonious and orderly, but during the previous era, Primordial Chaos ran free, influencing the will of the Heavens. That’s why we generally refer to the previous era as the Primordial Era.”

“Did everyone cultivate the Dao of Chaos back then?” Zac said as he shuddered, remembering just how terrifying that energy was.

“Hardly, but it was the glue that held the Heavens together, and its influence could be seen in all paths. Conversely, this Era is one forged through Order, where your pathways, your skills, your titles have the echoes of Order within,” Qi’Sar said.

“How do people know all this?” Zac asked. “I thought people barely knew what was going on in the age of Emperor Limitless.”

“The Eternal Heritages,” the Realm Spirit smiled. “I had the luck of witnessing one such site in my lifetime, it is my greatest source of pride.”

“Eternal Heritage?” Zac said, never having heard of anything like it before.

“All life in the Multiverse was extinguished at the end of the Primordial Era, all matter returned to the Primordial Chaos. But some things… are beyond the Dao itself—eternal. There are a handful of items and places that survived the cataclysm of the Primordial Era. Each one of those heritages is beyond your comprehension, powerful enough to turn empires to dust.

“It is through those heritages much about the ancient past was discovered. I personally know of two eras that have left behind such items, a testament to the might of their time. Apart from the Primordial Era, there has also been an era where the Five Elements were the basis of all reality. There are most likely more of them out there, but the peak factions are fiercely guarding them,” Qi’Sar said.

“Greater than the Dao…” Zac muttered, unable to imagine just how powerful those places were. Did they surpass the A-grade?

“In contrast, not a single such heritage has been created in the Era of Unity, at least not to my knowledge,” Qi’Sar said, confirming Zac’s guess. “The beings that created these heritages… They would be unmatched and unopposed if they appeared in this age.”

“And this is somehow related to the Broken Peaks?” Zac asked.

What Qi’Sar said was interesting, but time was limited and he needed to get something tangible he could use.

“The cataclysm ended the Primordial Era, and the Heavens themselves were destroyed. Of course, the Dao is eternal, and it slowly reformed itself, giving birth to the current age. However, some parts were more affected by the cataclysm than others. The Dao of Chaos and a few others have still not been completely reintegrated into the Heavens. Then the System arrived, further complicating things,” Qi’Sar said.

“Does that mean cultivating the Dao of Chaos is impossible?” Zac frowned.

“Nothing is impossible,” the Realm Spirit said. “As I said, the Dao is eternal. While cultivators call them Broken Peaks, it’s more apt to say they are obscured. You can still climb them, but it puts greater requirements on your affinities. However, walking the trodden path within the purview of the System… it has its own issues.”

“Is that why the Undead Empire doesn’t want its followers to cultivate Pure Death?” Zac ventured.

“No, that is due to another issue, but I cannot discuss it,” Qi’Sar said. “The compulsions still bind me, even in this state.”

Zac wanted to ask more, but it looked like they had run out of time. The Realm Spirit shuddered as a couple of new cracks appeared on his face.

“It is time for me to return. Follow me,” he said.

Zac got back on his feet with a grunt, and the Realm Spirit led him deeper into the mansion, passing one opulent room after another. They entered a seemingly unassuming study, but Zac realized what was going on when the Realm Spirit indicated for him to move a small statue. Zac walked over and pushed it, prompting a trapdoor to smoothly open.

“This pathway will lead to the cellar of my castle, allowing you to circumvent the cultivators guarding the entrance aboveground. The treasure room is located down there as well. The others are busy breaking through the restrictions to reach my core. If all goes according to plan, you will not meet any of the other trial-takers in this venture,” Qi’Sar said.

“Simple enough,” Zac muttered. “Will you tell me now what it is you want me to take away from here?”

“It’s a special crystal I have nurtured with the energy of this realm for millions of years,” Qi’Sar relented. “A unique creation of life and death.”

“No wonder,” Zac whistled, though he inwardly wondered if things really were that simple.

“As long as you take that thing away, you’re free to help yourself to everything else left in the treasury,” the Realm Spirit added.

“Very generous,” Zac said with a slightly raised brow.

“I can’t take it with me into the cycle of reincarnation,” the Realm Spirit laughed when he saw Zac’s skepticism. “I might as well do a good deed by helping someone on a similar path as my own. Besides, the less that is left to the vultures outside, the easier I’ll be able to pass on.”

“I hate to ask, but are you able to control where I’m let out when this all goes down?” Zac ventured. “I have essentially angered every party in this conflict. If you want me to take this treasure of yours away, I could use the assist.”

“I might be able to move you slightly farther away from the core of the action. But you should understand I will be facing my end the moment the realm collapses, and I cannot guarantee anything,” the man said after some thought. “But if you help me with this task, I will do my utmost.”

“That’s fine, I can manage from there,” Zac said.

Zac wasn’t quite as confident as he let on. In fact, he felt the odds of him being able to smoothly return to Zecia pretty slim. There was no guarantee that the teleportation arrays would work when he exited. The platform housing the arrays might have been destroyed already. And even if it still stood intact, there was no way Alvod would keep it operational.

Shutting that down would be the first thing he did to prevent any powerful enemies from joining the struggle. Zac had some cards prepared, but they probably wouldn’t work in the middle of whatever chaos waited outside. So long as he could get far enough away, he had a shot. If not, he would have to figure something out. There would be a lot of cultivators stranded… Hopefully a solution would present itself.

Zac couldn’t expect the Realm Spirit to accomplish something impossible, and he even felt embarrassed to ask. After all, no matter who won on the outside, the man standing in front of him would die. A former Autarch, someone who had towered over trillions of beings, one of the true rulers of the Multiverse.

“Are… you okay?” Zac hesitantly asked.

“Most of my old life is hazy, but the little I remember was grander than what most could ever dream of experiencing. I have seen civilizations rise and fall, I have witnessed miracles and experienced sorrows, all in the pursuit of the Grand Dao.” The man smiled. “But everything must end. I have already overstayed my welcome. It is time for me to enter Samsara.”

With that, he was gone. Zac thoughtfully looked at the spot where the Realm Spirit disappeared for a few moments before his gaze turned to the hidden corridor leading toward the castle. He tried to make sense of the former Autarch, but it was impossible to draw any definite conclusions. He’d been congenial, but was Qi’Sar’s intentions really as pure as he let on?

The spirit hadn’t made any threats or tried to force his hands, but he had made it almost impossible to say no. The material to stabilize Alea just so happened to be in the same room as the mysterious crystal? The spirit would help expel him at a safe spot if Zac helped him?

Their talk had been harmonious, but if there was one thing Ogras had taught him, it was to never take people at face value. This was an old monster, two even, who had come close to the peak of cultivation. That was something which required not only talent, but also smarts, ruthlessness, and an unbendable will.

Was he really resigned to falling here and becoming fuel for the Eveningtide Asura’s ascension?

Zac knew existential exhaustion was a real thing, but it was surprisingly rare among peak existences. Their conception of time shifted as their grades increased, and they only got where they were because of an obsession with the Dao. It was a very real possibility that this Realm Spirit had some plans of their own, a gambit to continue their pursuit of the Dao.

The question was what role Zac’s mission had in this mess, and whether there was anything he could do to protect himself from any further machinations.

His thoughts turned for the next couple of minutes, but he ultimately shook his head and started to get ready. No matter what the true reason was for the Realm Spirit approaching him was, Zac had to go through with it. But he would keep his eyes open and play things by the ear.

A stream of energy entered his Specialty Core, and a moment later, Life spread through his body. However, Zac’s eyes widened with alarm when he felt terrifying fluctuations in his chest as a storm of Twilight Energy surged into his body. It felt like he was being ripped apart by a million spatial tears and his pathways were on fire. He collapsed with a scream, barely able to stay conscious.

What the hell was going on?

18

LINKED

Pain far beyond what he’d endured during the fight spread through every part of Zac’s body. He feared the Duplicity Core had somehow been damaged during the battle without him noticing, resulting in a flawed transformation process. Thankfully, Zac quickly realized that wasn’t what was happening.

The issue seemed to be coming from his recently completed [Quantum Gate]. He didn’t know exactly what it was doing, but he figured it shouldn’t be harmful. However, the torrential amounts of Twilight Energy that surged into him was a problem, and he took out a couple of Supreme Nexus Crystals and crushed them.

The Twilight Energy around him was rapidly being replaced with Cosmic Energy, but the neutral energy barely had time to appear before it was dragged into Zac as well. He was like a voracious vortex, but it wasn’t actually the Hidden Node itself that was the source of the pull. Every single part of his body greedily sucked in energy, even though his human form shouldn’t be energy-starved at all.

He started to regret swapping races as the pain threatened to drive him mad, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He was running dangerously low on Miasma, and his pathways were an absolute mess. Meanwhile, his Arcaz Black persona had become public enemy number one, and who knew if this place would blow up early.

After all, the one-hour deadline was simply his estimate based on the chaotic decay. There was no guarantee that Alvod or someone on the outside wouldn’t make their move before that. Someone might strike early to seize an advantage, resulting in everyone getting thrown out early.

Zac started to wonder if he would even survive the transformation as he was beset by pain that far surpassed even that of the Bone-Forging Dust. Even if whatever [Quantum Gate] wanted to do was beneficial, his body wasn’t really in a state to undergo any large transformations.

The process fortunately only lasted a couple of minutes, but that short moment felt like an eternity. Zac took a shuddering breath as he got back to a sitting position, but froze, looking around with wonder. A few seconds later, he turned his gaze inward to inspect his body.

It only took a cursory scan to figure out what was going on, and Zac breathed out in relief. Seeing the changes had pretty much confirmed the node was implanted by his mother and her clan, meant to work in tandem with the Duplicity Core. And luckily, its function definitely wasn’t related to the Dao of Technology.

He was elated to see his pathways had grown thicker and sturdier compared to before. Not only that, he felt his whole body was tougher, and touching his skin confirmed it had further strengthened the extra subcutaneous layer. He’d already gained some of its benefits upon reaching D-grade race, but now his human side had been pushed to the same level as his Draugr form, along with his energy reserves.

Furthermore, the first thing he noticed when the process was complete was that his eyesight had improved, now naturally able to spot life force just like his Draugr-vision did. He didn’t want to confirm it right now, but he was somewhat certain his poison resistance in his human form had shot through the roof as well. Seeing the result, Zac had a pretty good idea what his mother’s clan had been planning for him.

The [Quantum Gate] was designed to carry over benefits. His main form, the human side, was an empty receptacle, while the other side of the Duplicity Core was meant to feed things into it. Thus, he’d now gained all the unique benefits of his Draugr race on his human side.

From the looks of it, the benefits only seemed to be those that were related to race. He didn’t have any Miasma to control, and the skills of his other class were still out of his reach. A glance at his Status Screen confirmed he hadn’t gained any attribute points either. The gate appeared to be a one-way street, since he hadn’t noticed any improvements at all in his Draugr form after the Hidden Node had been completed.

Perhaps, Leandra and the Kayar-Elu meant for his other race to be machine-related, allowing them to sneak the Dao of Technology into his human body through the [Quantum Gate]. Or, maybe they planned to infuse some weird chimeral bloodline on the other side, providing various unique benefits to a human cultivator.

As to why they didn’t simply make him some more powerful race, Zac wasn’t certain. There was generally some balance in the universe. Humans didn’t have any advantages, but they didn’t really have any disadvantages either. Meanwhile, many beings with unique abilities had harsh downsides to match.

Of course, the most likely reason was that the Kayar-Elu tried to pull one over on the System with the so-called Root Compact. Making the impossible possible.

Zac couldn’t help but have his imagination run wild with the possibilities, and he felt some mixed emotions when remembering Leandra’s disappointment when talking about his Draugr side, like it was a waste of their hard work.

Zac threw those useless thoughts aside. Things had turned out pretty good, all things considered.

As far as races went, Draugr were pretty close to the top, barring those unique and rare existences. The benefits he would get from his undead side, provided his speculation was correct, were bound to surpass what he would get from most races. It also made him even more determined to try and excavate some racial Hidden Nodes for his Draugr bloodline before breaking through to D-grade.

Besides, his undead side was what made him walk down his current path, and possibly what made the System steer him toward the Remnants in the first place. Learning about the Primordial Era and the fall of Chaos hadn’t dampened his willingness to walk down his current path at all.

If anything, it strengthened his resolve. From the sounds of it, the main drawback of cultivating a broken peak was that it put greater demands on your affinity to that Dao, apart from the System not shielding you from the tribulations, but Zac circumvented the issue of affinities altogether.

He wasn’t too worried about the tribulation lightning either. While most missives talked about them with extreme dread, he hadn’t felt that way at all when getting zapped. They’d hurt pretty bad, but not to the point where it felt like his soul was about to be extinguished as some missives warned. If anything, the lightning almost felt beneficial.

Meanwhile, it sounded like cultivating within the purview of the System’s Dao also had its problems. There were unknown drawbacks to cultivating the incorporated Daos according to Qi’Sar, though they most likely only became apparent at the higher stages. Otherwise, he would have heard about it already.

As for the history of the Multiverse, while interesting, Zac didn’t really put it to heart. The fact that the universe was eternal and cyclical was pretty shocking, but it wasn’t like those theories weren’t floating about before the integration. That before the Big Bang there had been previous universes.

It didn’t impact Zac’s life in the slightest, especially considering Qi’Sar said the current era was still in its early stages. There were possibly trillions of years before the people of the Multiverse would have to worry about the next cataclysm.

The most interesting part was the mention of Eternal Heritages, particularly those from the Primordial Era. Being able to visit such a place would be a huge opportunity, especially for someone like him who aimed for the Daos of Oblivion and Creation. Problem was, those places seemed to be monopolized by the peak factions in the Multiverse, which wasn’t a surprise, really.

The frontier didn’t even seem to possess Ancient Realms, let alone Immemorial Realms like the one his mother was taking Kenzie to. Worrying about these Eternal Heritages was a waste of time. Simply knowing of their existence was valuable, since you never knew what you would encounter in the future.

Having confirmed the situation with the node, Zac went over his body a few more times to get a sense of how much power he could exert. The result was decent but not great. Even if his pathways were fine in his human form, his nodes were shared between the races. They were still damaged, making it dangerous to overextend himself. The damage wrought from the Remnants remained as well, and Zac could feel the hidden cracks in his foundation.

If possible, he would definitely have to avoid any more battles, especially with elites who would push him. Just to be safe, he altered his appearance to that of a middle-aged man. At first, he’d been worried that his true appearance would have been changed by his large expenditure of life force, but losing a few centuries at D-grade race thankfully wasn’t enough for something like that to happen.

Zac also turned his hair black with a greenish tint, just like how some human natives looked after cultivating among treants on the platforms covered with Life-and-Nature-attuned arrays. Having confirmed with a mirror, Zac also hadn’t gained the pallid skin or abyssal eyes of his Draugr side, even though he received the benefits they brought.

Hopefully, that would allow him to disguise himself as a local elite if encountering anyone, especially with his Fragment of the Bodhi. He did hold off on activating the array around his Specialty Core though, in case something unexpected cropped up. He would switch that thing on just before the realm collapsed.

Having prepared everything he could, he walked into the corridor behind the open trapdoor, wielding a random axe he looted during the hunt. He was relieved to see he could turn [Love’s Bond] into its amulet form without issue, since the big coffin on his back was pretty hard to hide. This way, he should be completely indistinguishable.

The hidden tunnel was simple and unadorned, but it seemed to be protected by some sort of shielding array. Zac couldn’t sense anything from the outside at all, even if he only walked a couple of meters beneath the surface. Soon enough, the stone around him changed, and he realized he was passing through the inner wall.

The pathway was only so long, and after a few minutes, he reached the end—a solid stone wall. The Realm Spirit had disappeared before explaining the next step. Zac looked around thoughtfully, pushing and pulling on anything. Suddenly, one of the stones lit up with a small array, prompting the wall to slide open.

Zac walked through, surprised and slightly alarmed to find himself in a clean and well-lit room, lined with a couple of sparsely-stocked wooden shelves, rather than the dusty ruins he’d come to know in the City of Ancients. He breathed out in relief upon realizing there was no one around, and the cleanliness was thanks to the arrays on the walls still working.

“There is a crystal on the second shelf. It contains the path you need to take,” Qi’Sar’s voice echoed through the room, giving Zac a start.

“Could’ve just led the way,” Zac muttered as he walked over to the shelf.

“I couldn’t split my attention and keep that projection going. I am being attacked from multiple directions, and I had to shrink my consciousness from the whole realm to just this building to endure a bit longer,” the Realm Spirit sighed.

“Alright, sorry,” Zac coughed.

Just like the Realm Spirit said, Zac found a small information crystal hidden underneath a cloth. Inside it was a map of the cellar, giving Zac the directions to the hidden treasure room. From the looks of it, he would only need to travel around five minutes through the corridors at a decent pace to make it there, giving him some wiggle-room.

He didn’t immediately leave the room, giving the small storage space a second look. The shelves were mostly empty, but there were a couple of urns that looked a lot like the vats that Ogras used to age his wine. Anything left to age had probably spoiled by now, even with spiritual energy increasing the shelf-life many times over.

But that didn’t stop him from taking them.

Zac wasn’t done there, and he gripped one of the wooden shelves, exerting some pressure on the material. His eyes lit up as the shelf only groaned a bit in response to his strength, proving it was most likely made from D-grade materials like the stones outside. It wasn’t inscribed either, meaning it could perhaps be reforged into proper D-grade equipment.

Leaving behind such good materials would be a huge waste, so the shelf joined the vats in his Spatial Ring.

“What are you doing?” an exasperated voice echoed out after a moment. “I am straining myself to buy us time over here.”

“I thought you were busy,” Zac said as he stowed away another shelf. “This is ancient D-grade wood. It’s worth a pretty penny.”

“You’re heading toward a treasury as the realm is collapsing around you, yet you’re shopping for furniture,” Qi’Sar sighed. “Besides, wood is a living crafting material, like Spiritual Herbs. It is too old by now and has lost its spirituality. It would be one thing if the shelves were made out of refined metals or stone, but this…”

“I hear you,” Zac nodded as he put the last two shelves into his Spatial Ring.

He considered ripping out the illuminating crystals from their sockets, but they didn’t seem like they were worth anything.

Zac finally left the room, following the map. Outside was a spacious, empty corridor, lined with multiple doors. He flashed over to the closest one, and it opened without a sound, except a groan from the Realm Spirit.

The room on the other side was far larger compared to where he came from, but Zac quickly closed the door and moved on. Inside, there had been a few massive basins with large, exhausted crystals hanging in the ceiling. It looked like the room had been made to cultivate some water-based treasures, but the arrays had long failed and the water had dried up.

Zac flashed from one room after another on the way to the treasury, sweeping up everything in his path that looked even a the least bit valuable. The spurring from the Realm Spirit grew more urgent by the minute, but Zac wouldn’t just leave money on the ground when visiting a former Autarch’s castle, even if time was limited.

A shockwave from above shook the castle, stopping him in his tracks, and he quickly started moving again. He’d first worried it was the Mystic Realm starting to collapse, but it rather seemed to have been the result of a clash between cultivators above. The Radiant Temple and Havarok Empire had likely finally encountered each other.

Still, the scare filled him with enough urgency to perform cursory glances into any room he passed, and he only took things that still emitted some spirituality. He’d managed to fill his Spatial Ring with valuable metals, stones, and all kinds of tools. The rooms in the cellar seemed to be geared toward crafting, either nurturing materials or refining them.

However, they were clearly not the ‘top rooms’ that the master of the castle himself would use, but rather for the live-in craftsmen of the manor who created items meant for day-to-day operations of this vast compound. The top-tier rooms were probably upstairs, which was why the treasury was hidden down here. And soon enough, he reached the nondescript wall that held the entrance to the treasury.

Zac’s heart drummed with excitement as he followed the instructions in the crystal. A hidden chamber door slid up, prompting an immensely condensed wave of Twilight Energy to waft over him. It was beyond what he’d been forced to endure in the bottom of the chasm, and he hurriedly activated [Void Zone] to not get overrun.

The terrifying amount of energy only served to fan Zac’s excitement, considering it probably meant the room was filled with treasure. The ambient energy was so dense, it had turned into a thick haze, but it was dispersing now that the door had opened. Zac rushed inside, and his eyes kept growing wider as more and more of the treasury was exposed.

He’d struck it rich.

19

THE TROVE OF THE OCEAN

The treasury wasn’t too big, but what it lacked in quantity, it made up in quality. Zac had been worried it would be just an empty room, considering how most people simply carried their most valuable possessions in their Spatial Tools. But as he looked around, there were over twenty items that emitted the powerful fluctuations of D-grade items, not including the piles of Cosmic Crystals.

It was far from his most exaggerated hopes, where boundless C and even B-grade treasures were strewn about. Zac knew that was impossible in a System-controlled E-grade trial. He’d already realized that low or middle D-grade was the limit of what the System would allow in this version of the Twilight Ascent.

Anything beyond that was most likely placed in the higher-grade versions of the trial. And as expected, the D-grade items were all sealed by a golden brand, proving that not even the treasure chamber of Qi’Sar was free from the System’s meddling. It didn’t look like he would be making hundreds of C-grade Nexus Coins today, but that didn’t mean his haul was anything to scoff at.

The value of every single treasure had to be measured in D-grade Nexus Coins, including the piles of Cosmic Crystals that exuded shocking amounts of energy. And all this paled in front of the item placed in the middle of the room on a small inscribed pedestal. On top stood a meter-tall dodecahedron wrought from mottled metal rods.

The metallic cage wasn’t the real treasure, but did act as some sort of containment field for the thing Qi’Sar wanted him to bring away. It was an odd-looking crystal resembling a thick candy cane, and it hovered in the middle of the cage. Instead of red and white, it was black and golden. It didn’t emit any energy at all, though that was only due to the containment field.

“This is the thing I need you to take away,” Qi’Sar’s voice echoed through the hall, though his projection still didn’t appear. “My children.”

“Your what?” Zac blurted.

“It is a Realm Spirit. A true one, rather than one forged by chance such as myself,” Qi’Sar explained. “I have nurtured it for ten million years, expending innumerable treasures that have been left behind. Not only that, it is a mutated twin-souled Realm Spirit, holding the affinities of both Life and Death. For an Edgewalker such as yourself, it is a unique opportunity to craft a cultivation planet perfectly suited to your path.”

“So that’s why you were so insistent,” Zac said. “You want me to save your children from the collapse of this Mystic Realm? Is that even possible?”

“They have yet to awaken, making them technically not yet alive,” Qi’Sar said. “However, they are still bound to the realm. The cage you see around it is meant to protect the crystal housing them, and to keep them stable while you take them from here. However, this can only be done at the moment when the realm collapses.”

“The realm breaking down will break the connection, and I just need to take them at that moment?” Zac confirmed. “What then?”

“You acquire a high-quality world or realm such as this, and simply implant this crystal by the World Core. As long as this world has no consciousness of its own, these two children will eventually fuse with the core and truly awaken,” Qi’Sar said. “Thus, a world perfectly suited for your needs will be born, while my children will get a chance to start anew. Simple enough.”

“It’s pretty big though. Can I put it in a Spatial Ring?” Zac frowned.

“You can, but no longer than ten years. They are not alive like you, but the environment in a Spatial Treasure is void of energy, which can harm them if too much time passes,” Qi’Sar said. “But as I said, you cannot take it now. You need to start infusing the array with power, preparing it for the end. With your wild pillage, we are cutting time short.”

“What array?” Zac asked with raised brows as he moved closer.

“The cage itself is the array,” the Realm Spirit sighed.

“This thing?” Zac muttered as he slowly circled the dodecahedron, studying the fine engravings on the rods. “Never seen anything like it.”

“The Multiverse is full of marvels,” Qi’Sar muttered. “Now, hurry up and start powering up the array. You’re running out of time.”

Zac stared at the array for a few more seconds before he shrugged and straightened his back.

“I’m sorry, but my first priority is to save my Tool Spirit,” Zac said as he turned to a pile of crystals he’d never seen before. “Explain what I need to do before we deal with the Realm Spirits.”

“As I said, just use the refined Temporal Crystals,” Qi’Sar urged.

The crystals were light purple and covered in engravings, with white, flickering lights trapped inside. They appeared and disappeared, seemingly at random. With the temporal energies surrounding them, it almost felt like the sparks moved back and forth in time in an eternal cycle. Most of the crystals were sealed by the System, but some were fine.

From the looks of it, the available crystals were mostly out of energy, perhaps because they had been used up to power whatever array Qi’Sar had used. It was also possible the small runes that covered their surface had failed, prompting them to leak enough energy to get downgraded from D-grade to something equivalent to Pseudo D-grade.

“You simply need to have the young demoness absorb the energy within,” Qi’Sar said. “The Tool Spirit is supreme inside their inner world. She should have no problem using the extracted energy from the refined crystals to trap the rampaging ball of power she absorbed.”

“But how do we make sure the crystals slow down time, rather than speed it up?” Zac frowned. “She’s already under pressure. If we mess this up, she might die.”

“These are refined Temporal Crystals,” the Realm Spirit said with impatience. “Simply extract the Temporal Energy from the correct rune, the circular one, and it will be made into a Temporal Deceleration Field. It is far less efficient compared to using the Temporal Crystal with an Array, but it is enough for your purpose.”

Zac picked up one of the Temporal Crystals, frowning. The burning impatience of the spirit was palpable as he turned the crystal over multiple times before he attempted to extract some energy from the circular rune as the spirit said. Soon enough, he could feel how a small area in front of him was filled with Temporal Energy.

He took out a low-grade Nexus Crystal and threw it inside, and his eyes lit up when he saw it slow down to a fifth of its original speed as it passed through the Temporal Energy. Zac repeated the same experiment a few times, both trying things out with different crystals and comparing the effect with the other rune, the one that sped things up.

“I guess it is good that you are careful. Careless cultivators die an early death. But you also need to be decisive, grasping opportunities that are in front of you,” Qi’Sar said as he saw Zac play around. “I can feel how those on the outside have made their move. You are running out of time.”

A huge shudder rocked the whole realm, almost to confirm the Realm Spirit’s warning. Zac looked around with wide eyes as he felt a burst of Chaos even through the thick walls. Mixed in with it was something else, something he couldn’t place. Perhaps an attack from a Monarch on the outside had managed to make its way inside?

“I can only stave off their attempts for so long,” Qi’Sar urged.

“Alright,” Zac nodded as he put a Temporal Crystal next to the amulet on his neck and activated the rune.

At first, there was no response, but Zac soon felt a pull from the small coffin as it started to absorb the Temporal Energy. Zac nodded with satisfaction as he kept providing more and more energy while stowing away the other treasures in the hall.

First, the Temporal Crystals were stowed.

Over 90% of them were sealed by a golden brand, meaning they were proper D-grade crystals. Considering their wide array of uses and their scarcity, Zac believed this small pile of roughly eighty crystals was worth at least as much as all the natural treasures he plundered over the past three years combined. These were things that had a huge demand but no steady supply in the frontier.

In fact, he had no idea how they formed at all.

From there, he stowed away one pile of crystals after another, ignoring both the Realm Spirit’s increasingly urgent exhortations to hurry up and the increasingly powerful shakes that rocked the whole realm.

The Temporal Crystals were probably the most valuable ones in the treasury, considering there were no Spatial Crystals, but the others were all D-grade with various interesting attunements. Of course, there were hundreds of normal and Death-attuned Cosmic Crystals, multiplying his small stockpile more than ten times over.

Altogether, the non-attuned Cosmic Crystals alone were worth tens of thousands of D-grade Nexus Coins, almost completely recouping his expenses in Twilight Harbor. Add to that all the Attuned Crystals, and he might just have doubled his vast fortune, considering he could probably sell these kinds of Cosmic Crystals at a premium back home in Zecia.

Apart from the crystals, there was only one more raw material—a large block of Spiritual Metal, seemingly the same material the array cage was made from. The block was just one meter long with a diameter of thirty centimeters or so, but Zac felt his arms strain as he lifted it. It weighed almost like a mountain, shocking Zac as he exerted some pressure on the surface.

“What is this metal?” Zac exclaimed.

“Diluted Blackearth Steel,” Qi’Sar grunted. “Blackearth Steel is a proper D-grade metal known for its durability and ability to isolate energy. But with the System limiting materials, I had to turn it into a Pseudo D-grade alloy to prevent it from being sealed.”

Zac curiously tried to infuse some of his energy, and just as the Realm Spirit said, it was almost like it hit a solid wall. He nodded with understanding as he stowed the treasure away, and another rumble shook the treasure chamber.

“You have only a few minutes,” the Realm Spirit reminded.

“Alright. I’m almost done,” Zac said, and turned his attention to Alea. She had finally finished absorbing the Temporal Energy, and Zac felt the Spirit Tool had stabilized somewhat. He nodded in satisfaction and stowed the Temporal Crystal he had used to feed Alea before sweeping the shelves bare.

The items that remained were mostly various tools, but there were also a few sets of Information Crystals, inscribed plaques, and even a couple of scrolls. They were all different methods of storing things like cultivation manuals, methods, and skills, but there was no time to go through them since the realm was really falling apart at the seams.

“What now?” Zac asked.

“The array needs Life and Death, along with energy to activate. Infuse your Daos, and the cage will do the rest. It’s set to fully activate the moment the connection between my children and this realm is cut,” Qi’Sar eagerly said now that Zac was finally ready to deal with his task.

Zac returned to the cage, and without any further ado, started infusing his Fragment of the Bodhi and Fragment of the Coffin into the cage. However, he only infused one at the time, alternating between the two Daos as he fed more and more into the Array.

“What are you doing?” Qi’Sar almost screamed with fear after a particularly rough shudder spread through the treasury, almost throwing Zac off his feet. “You are too slow! My children will not make it at this rate!”

“If you have followed me over the past years, you should know my energy control is pretty horrible,” Zac said with embarrassment. “Besides, my soul is wounded from before. I’m infusing it as quickly as I can. You need to hold on a bit longer.”

“All because of your greed,” Qi’Sar growled.

Zac felt the realm stabilize a bit from the increasingly incessant shudders.

Still, he could feel how the realm wasn’t long for the world. The Twilight Energy around him was unraveling, and space had started to come apart. With his lingering connection to Chaos, he could feel they were right at the precipice.

“Are we close to done?” Zac frowned as he felt his already drained soul being sapped of more and more Mental Energy. “I’m running out of energy here. I need some left if I’m supposed to take it away.”

“Well, it needs to be able to withstand the backlash of the connection breaking,” Qi’Sar said. “And don’t worry. I will send you farther away with my last breath. Now, get ready, we are abou—WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”

The receiving runes had suddenly started to twist along with the Blackearth Steel. The isolation capabilities of the alloy were impressive, but they weren’t a match to the small burst of Creation Zac forced into the array. He managed to retain a small amount of both energies for emergencies, and chose to use his last Creation Energy at this moment.

The vibrant force spread like a poison through the dodecahedron, causing hairline cracks to appear. The Realm Spirit was screaming at him with horror in his voice, but Zac ignored it as [Verun’s Bite] appeared in his hand. The axe was already descending toward the array, with the two runes of sharpness and heaviness radiating a sanguine glow.

The swing bit into the metal tubes with such force, it shocked the whole treasury. The cage held, except for some small cracks that covered its surface. Zac wasn’t deterred, and he furiously swung his axe two more times until the cage cracked altogether, unleashing a storm of contained energy.

At the same time, the whole Mystic Realm groaned as spatial tears appeared all over the place, signaling that the realm was truly falling apart. Zac was inundated in extremely condensed Life and Death, but he didn’t step back. Instead, he grabbed the shimmering crystal, hurriedly ripping it out of the socket just as he felt a surge of energy entering the room.

Cracks spread across the small, spiraled gem as it started leaking energy, but Zac simply stuffed it into a treasure box along with a couple of the Life-and-Death-attuned Cosmic Crystals he found in the room, before sealing the box with a talisman and stuffing it into his Spatial Ring.

“What have you done!” an infuriated voice roared with enough force to make the whole room shake.

Zac snorted in response, not bothering to talk with the Realm Spirit any longer. Something had been off about the congenial Realm Spirit since the beginning, and that feeling had only become stronger after he entered the castle. Zac couldn’t pinpoint the problem, but something wasn’t right.

Seeing how urgently the Realm Spirit had wanted him to get to the treasury, Zac had been filled with reluctance, so much so, he’d started stalling. Why else would he have spent twenty minutes looting ratty old furniture and broken-down tools when the world around him was collapsing?

The Realm Spirit kept being careful to not push him too hard even when wasting time, no doubt afraid its plans would fail if he became hostile. That way, less than fifteen minutes was remaining when Zac reached the treasury, giving the Realm Spirit less time to enact whatever plan it had concocted.

And having seen the cage, Zac mostly figured out what was going on.

A vast majority of the runes were foreign to him, but some weren’t. He hadn’t seen them in any of Catheya’s compendiums of patterns or from any missives. Rather, they were something that had originated from Adcarkas, Void’s Disciple. After Zac managed to kill the Dominator, he hadn’t dared take his Cosmos Sack back to Earth, instead destroying it along with his and Harbinger’s corpses.

However, some things still managed to make their way back, and he’d seen these particular patterns upon visiting Clan Volor. It was shortly after they set up their underwater town where the frogmen appeared on Earth.

When the Mystic Realm started collapsing, Void’s Disciple and Inevitability had been nowhere to be found. So, the Zhix traitors decided to move toward the Memorysteel Mountain, bringing their captive Gemlings with them. However, they had first collected everything in the buildings where Dominators had stayed for the last couple of months.

It was among these items Zac found several schematics, along with some research notes and experiments. Zac couldn’t make heads or tails of it, but Kenzie and Jeeves quickly understood that the notes were related to soul transference. Adcarkas had been researching a way to adapt a possession-type array to make use of the Spatial Energy of the Dimensional Seed.

Most of the array schematic was missing, most likely left on Void’s Disciple’s body, but it was certain that it was the method Adcarkas used to take over the body of his daughter. And now, Zac had seen similar patterns on the cage in this treasury.

The old Realm Spirit had lived for a long time, but it was clearly not as willing to enter the cycle of reincarnation as he’d tried to let on.

20

ONE SHOT AT ETERNITY

Alvod looked at an array of items before him as he sat in the center of the Ascension Array, his heart beating with a mix of trepidation and anticipation. Four hundred thousand years of preparation, all for this moment. He would either defend his Dao and begin the next step of his journey or he would turn to dust, as so many before him had.

His gaze turned to the chaotic scars that covered the tapestry, and he shook his head with a wry smile. Things had turned out alright, but that young Draugr was a troublemaker of unprecedented proportions. To think he managed to form a shadow of that elusive Dao with the help of those two cursed objects. Even more surprising, he was still alive and kicking.

It was no wonder the brat had such confidence in his path. Alvod had always thought it a fool’s errand. But who knew, he might just be able to keep climbing a while longer. Of course, seeing that fragmented Dao didn’t shake his Dao Heart at all. That little animal had his path, and he had his own.

The descent of the System and the hastened collapse of the realm was unexpected, but it didn’t change things overly much. He’d lost a year of preparations, but so did those on the outside. Besides, his whole road of cultivation had been bumpy. Why should his ascent be any different?

Thankfully, the two intrusive whispers in the back of his mind had been quieted just before the System descended, which improved his odds of success by at least 5%. Most likely, it was the Draugr who, either wittingly or unwittingly, destroyed the preparations of his fellow imperials while hunting the Remnant Alvod had set loose.

Alvod figured that one of the two being destroyed by the hand of Arcaz Black would be a good outcome, but he’d underestimated the control the Draugr held over Creation and Oblivion. It appeared the masters Arcaz Black mentioned were real, as they must have provided him with something to curtail the madness of the ancient Remnants, at least until they could be harvested.

It was time.

Alvod closed his eyes and focused while the array lit up around him, and his Dharma Treasure emerged from his glabella. The small, wooden rowboat rose above his head, forming an illusory tidal wave beneath itself. It crashed against the daybreak, an endless cycle of ebb and flow. It was the herald of the Evening Tide, the harbinger of his Dao.

Next, Alvod threw out the Wheels of the Six Paths, each one taking a position on the crumbling tapestry. He couldn’t help but once more open his eyes and look upon them with mixed emotions. Finding the first wheel of this ancient and heretical Buddhist treasure, the Wheel of Preta-Gati, on his homeworld had completely remolded his destiny.

It allowed him to defy the Heavens themselves as he became a ravenous ghost that fed on the world itself. He’d become unsurpassed and unmatched in might, but it also set him down a path of tragedy. Twisting him into a calamity for his homeworld far more dangerous than any invaders. When he woke from his stupor, nothing but ruins remained.

Things had only somewhat stabilized when he found the Wheel of Manushya-Gati, in the hands of a young woman he killed in his madness. He even managed to seize a Body Tempering Manual in the Tower of Eternity that more efficiently made use of the unique energy the wheels generated.

These wheels had made him extraordinary. Without them, there was no guarantee he would even have survived the integration. Even if he did, the odds of him reaching Hegemony were slim. Monarchy was but a distant and unrealistic hope. At most, he would have managed to become a local warlord on his home planet at the edge of the Multiverse, destined to never come in contact with the real truths of the universe.

But for all the wheels had given him, they were also the cause of endless suffering. Alvod knew it wasn’t just a matter of their value causing avarice in others. The more he made use of them, the heavier his Karmic Debt would become, which maintained the Law of Balance. It’d become so suffocating, he was forced into hiding for hundreds of thousands of years, unable to even gaze upon the sky.

Now, mighty foes had gathered to interrupt his ascension, making a nigh insurmountable task even harder. However, with the last two wheels collected in the Havarok Empire and his imminent ascension, things were finally about to reach a turning point. As long as he succeeded, the Six Paths would open, and he would shed the Karmic Debt he accumulated by severing his chance at reincarnation.

He would only live once, but Alvod was fine with that. One shot at eternity was all he needed.

“I am the holder of the Evening Tide,” he said, and reality shuddered as he imposed his will on the wheels. “The ages turn, Karma dies, and the world is reborn.”

The tapestry resisted, rather, the Realm Spirit did. When the wheels turned one full circle, the Twilight Ocean would be gone, reincarnated as an avatar to his path. Alvod smiled at the struggle, and his gaze turned to the small chalice hovering in the air, its receptacle filled to three-quarters with Primal Dao.

Seven drops, one for each wheel, while the last entered his Dharma Treasure. The rowboat was already at the peak of its grade, and the infusion pushed it one step further, putting it right at the threshold. Seeing that the treasure held, Alvod grinned, his gaze turning to a small clay figurine.

“Life is not life, death is not death,” he muttered as the figurine floated into his hands.

A million dense scripts flashed into being on the small figurine as it started exuding an inscrutable and earth-shattering aura. But that was nothing compared to the radiant display in his inner world, where a ten-thousand-meter-tall statue lit up in a similar manner. An unprecedented storm erupted there, with the crashing waves reaching thousands of meters in the air.

The small wooden boat became an avatar of the storm as it crashed forward, the tide churning in its wake. It slammed into the weakened tapestry, causing reality itself to crack. The wheels turned ninety degrees, and Alvod took a shuddering breath as he felt cracks spread across his world. However, he wasn’t deterred at all, and his mouth curved upward in a bloody smile as he heard an earth-shattering rumble on the outside.

It had begun.

* * *

“It’s all wrong,” Elou Alu’Valadir muttered with a frown as she gazed up at the accumulating clouds covering an area far greater than the whole of the Twilight Harbor. “What should we do, Lord Nether?”

The deep thud of an immensely tyrannic heart echoed out, its power enough to cause ripples in space itself. It pushed into the churning anomaly of the crumbling Dao world, searching for answers within.

“The effigy has failed,” Nizu Noz’Valadir frowned. “I cannot sense the presence of my descendant either. Something unexpected must have happened in the end.”

“If the effigy has failed…” Grifon Alu’Valadir glanced at the sea of crystals that were slowly waking up, each of them emitting the troublesome Shroud of Azur to hide the movements of the Eidolon cultivators.

“No matter. Chaos has taken hold of this event, and no side will be able to seize a clear advantage,” Nizu muttered with a sigh as six golden rings appeared behind his back, throbbing with the Dao right at the edge of the threshold. “But when it comes to foundations and strength, the Eternal Clan fear no one, certainly not some frontier Monarchs. I will force my way. You two, restrain those scheming natives, and monitor the movements of Hive Ouro.”

“Will they even dare—” Grifon snorted, but the grin on his face stilled when space cracked.

Out from the Void, nine spears emerged, forming a perfect encirclement around the spatial anomaly. Each one was almost ten kilometers long and covered in dense scriptures that palpitated with destructive energies. The next moment, nine Monarchs appeared, each one hovering above a respective spear.

A ripple echoed through the Twilight Harbor as the nine spears shot forward, heading toward the anomaly with crushing momentum.

“Godslayer spikes,” Nizu muttered with some surprise. “The locals are going all out.”

“Lord, we cannot…” Elou hesitated as her aura started climbing.

“Not to worry,” Nizu smiled as he took out a large, sanguine crystal. “You are not alone. Stopping three of them is enough. The Eidolon will be forced to make a move as well. As for the final three, the main character will have to deal with them himself.”

The two elders breathed out in relief, looking to the crystal in Nizu Noz’Valadadir’s hand. A flash of light emerged from its core, spreading its radiance for dozens of miles and prompting the Heavens to rumble.

“That’s—!” Elou exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock and hunger.

“This Heavenly Descent belongs to the Eternal Clan,” Nizu smiled as the crystal cracked.

* * *

As expected, the Realm Spirit had mixed truths with lies. The crystal really appeared to be a nascent Realm Spirit, and the array actually had the capability to protect the crystal within. But it also contained the ability to transfer a consciousness, which was a huge problem.

There was no way Zac would feel comfortable infusing a deceptive Autarch into Earth’s World Core. That was a disaster waiting to happen. He would rather break the cage and risk losing the young Realm Spirits over having it become a vessel to Qi’Sar. It was possible the former Autarch only wanted to find a new home to continue living, but there were all kinds of mysterious and weird abilities out there.

What if he wasn’t content staying a Realm Spirit forever? Wasn’t Zac’s dual races a perfect vessel if Qi’Sar wanted to embark on the path of cultivation again? Even worse, Zac only understood a small part of the array on the cage, and it might have contained even more hidden traps than just the Soul Transferring Array. Just the fact it was supposed to run on his Dao was suspicious.

Zac immediately decided to strike, even if he didn’t have all the facts.

As to why Qi’Sar was insistent on not putting it away just before the realm collapsed, his motivations were probably true. However, he wasn’t just talking about this young Realm Spirit being locked to the Twilight Ocean, but also himself. Qi’Sar probably wasn’t able to transfer his consciousness while the realm was still standing, indelibly bound to the Twilight Ocean.

The moment the realm collapsed, he would be free and have a short window of opportunity. It was right before that moment Zac destroyed the cage, using the surge of Chaos in the atmosphere to guide his timing.

“So, you figured it out,” Qi’Sar’s voice echoed through the chamber, the previously congenial voice now rife with sinister intentions. “I didn’t expect you to understand that array from how clueless you’ve acted over the past years. You truly hid yourself deeply.”

Zac wryly smiled, happy that his ignorance worked in his favor for once. The Realm Spirit had clearly been spying on him, and it must have witnessed the months he spent studying basic patterns that most elite clan members had already memorized by the time they started cultivating. How could someone like him have known about an esoteric unorthodox method like a Soul Transferring Array?

Even Zac’s greed where he looted everything he came across worked in his favor, and Qi’Sar hadn’t suspected his motivations to loot the side chambers at all. Zac had even happily looted the worthless Twilight Fruits and low-grade herbs over the past years, so why wouldn’t he go mad with greed for D-grade materials?

“I’m sorry, I don’t feel comfortable carrying an old schemer like you out of here,” Zac snorted. “It probably wouldn’t end well for me. But don’t worry, your legacy will live on through your children.”

The safest option would simply have been to stall things out until the realm collapsed, giving up on the twinned Life-Death Realm Spirits. That way, he would make it off scot-free with a hoard of treasure. However, Zac was unwilling to give up on this unique opportunity. Qi’Sar had been lying about some things, but Zac didn’t think he was lying about how useful this crystal was.

Who knew what kind of benefits a pair of mutated and connected Realm Spirits could bring to a young world like Earth? Right now, it was unclear if the planet would even survive the two clashing elements it had been imparted with. But with these little things, Earth had the potential to become a proper C-grade world. Perhaps something even greater if Zac managed to nurture the planet properly.

There was no response from the Realm Spirit this time. Though Zac felt a sudden scream of danger, and he activated [Earthstrider] to flash away. It was just in time, as something weird happened to the spot where he just stood. Space somehow twisted on itself, like a rag being squeezed. The area was returned to normal in an instant, but the pedestal that had held the crystal and array cage had turned to dust from the spatial twist.

Space itself seemed hollow, like it was somehow destroyed.

Zac’s eyes were wide with alarm, and he started running for his life, exiting the treasury in a mad dash. Another pang of danger warned him that he still wasn’t safe, and he ignored the protests of his body as he kept activating his movement skill, shifting almost a hundred meters in an instant. Space kept falling apart where he’d been standing—and it wasn’t just a random occurrence.

From the looks of it, Qi’Sar was destroying his own body to take out Zac.

Zac rushed toward the tunnel leading out of the castle, hoping the Realm Spirit’s control would be weaker farther away from its seat of power. However, he grimaced when he saw the whole storeroom twisting before being ripped apart. A moment later, a rumble came from within, indicating the tunnel had collapsed.

One way out of here had been destroyed, but that didn’t mean Zac could stop moving. The only reason he was still alive was no doubt because Qi’Sar lacked any real means of attack. After all, any random skill of a former Autarch would not only be immensely powerful but also extremely difficult to avoid.

Besides, Zac figured he probably had his hands full as he felt a series of tremors. Some came from directly above, most likely a final clash between the Havarok and the Radiant Temple. But there was also the occasional shake that rocked the whole realm, and they didn’t seem to be a result of the realm collapsing.

The old monsters on the outside had probably made their moves.

Luckily, Zac hadn’t only spent his time looting scraps after entering the castle cellar. He’d studied the layout, which included the path leading up. Before, it had mostly been to keep watch for other people sneaking up on him, but now it turned into a lifesaver as Zac flashed up a set of stairs, finding himself on the ground floor.

Another rumble shocked the castle, and Zac looked upward with some surprise. The force the two sides were unleashing in their battle was nothing to scoff at. Without the Remnants assisting him, Zac didn’t feel confident at all dealing with something like that. He remembered the army standing behind Ykrodas Havarok, guessing they used some mighty War Arrays in the struggle to either protect or kill the Realm Spirit.

Having reached this point, Zac muttered a silent prayer that Ykrodas Havarok would fail at this final juncture, allowing the Radiant Temple to kill Qi’Sar or at least harm him to the point he couldn’t waste any of his attention on Zac. After orienting himself, he flashed away once more, barely avoiding the increasingly frantic attempts to kill him.

“I might fall here, but I will have you accompany me across the Bridge of Forgetfulness!” Qi’Sar raged, and Zac’s eyes were wide with alarm as the whole castle started to rumble.

The infuriated Realm Spirit was actually collapsing the whole building after having failed to take Zac down. He desperately made his way toward the exit, but even with his movement skill, he knew he wouldn’t make it. D-grade boulders from the ceiling were already raining on him, and the walls were on the verge of collapsing entirely.

Having a castle fall on his head wouldn’t necessarily kill him, but that wasn’t the real problem. He’d already experienced just how difficult these stones were to break through. Becoming trapped in D-grade rubble would make him a sitting duck for the Realm Spirit. One spatial twist and he would be a goner.

Seeing no other option, Zac grit his teeth as infused some Void Energy into two skill fractals, prompting a large leaf to appear in front of his axehead. Two bursts of Mental Energy were squeezed from his drained soul, prompting two clouds to shoot forward, just as his path was about to be blocked.

The divide of the Abyss and Arcadia appeared from two vertical slashes, its power almost unstoppable thanks to the Twilight Energy and the fact that space had become extremely brittle. Not even the sturdy rocks could withstand the attack, and Zac desperately squeezed through the Void, emerging outside the castle in front of two shocked sentries.

Zac only glanced at the Havarok soldiers as a sea of killing intent rippled out from his body, prompting the two warriors to instinctively step back in fear. Their short lapse was enough for Zac to make his move, which was to heedlessly run away with [Earthstrider]. Behind him, the towering castle completely collapsed.

“You little bastard!” a roar echoed out with enough force to make the whole City of Ancients shake.

Zac didn’t even spare a glance as he fled through the tunnel leading out of the inner courtyard.

21

COLLAPSE

Alvod snorted as he sensed the world-ending ferocity of the incoming Godslayer Spikes. The council’s plans were truly sinister. They wanted to collapse the realm right at this critical moment, trying to force a singularity with the Realm Core as a medium for rebirth. Even if the worldly reincarnation failed, it would at least be a vicious strike at him.

It was with mixed emotions he looked out across the Twilight Harbor. Even if it was out of necessity, this little corner of the frontier had been his home for the better part of his life. Certainly, he’d spent most of the time in secluded cultivation or stasis, but he’d still watched the fates of those who made the Twilight Harbor their home. Generation after generation of triumphs and setbacks, an endless cycle of ebb and flow.

“All for the Dao,” Alvod sighed, his eyes hardening as he extracted another set of drops from the chalice.

This time, it wasn’t just a few drops, but more than half of his whole reserve. Though he looked at the sphere of Primal Dao with hunger, he ensured his desire was in check as he waved his hands. Eight Purifiers rose into the air, forming a circle around the blob as Alvod started forming Dharmic Seals with blinding speed.

The Tapestry of Twilight shuddered as a storm of meaning entered the purifiers under the control of Alvod, who also added his own Dao to finish the process. Alvod threw out the prepared materials at the moment of completion, before spitting out a blob of Heavenly fire. The materials mixed with the Primal Dao, and Alvod breathed out in relief when the mixture congealed into a small ball of shimmering paste.

He’d researched this method for close to two hundred thousand years, and spent another fifty thousand refining and preparing the materials. All that effort finally paid dividends as the compound exuded the purest of Dao and endless potential. Yet, the most critical part still remained. He took a deep breath before he made his move, and the whole realm shuddered as Alvod spat out a mouthful of blood.

The pain was blinding, but Alvod refused to let the darkness consume him as he released a steady breath toward the small ball. In his breath, his severed soul resided, and Alvod didn’t dare to even blink as he looked at the compound with growing worry.

Seconds passed after the shroud entered the Dao Paste, and Alvod’s heart hit rock-bottom when nothing happened. Was it a failure? Had he sacrificed too little of his soul? He could spare a little bit more of his mind, but that would worsen his ability to withstand what would come next.

The spears were also getting closer, and those foreigners wouldn’t do all the work for him. They needed to weaken him, though not to the point he failed to conjure the Heavenly Descent. They would probably leave two or three spears for him to deal with.

As he agonized over whether to cut off another part of the soul, his dismay turned to elation as the small ball transformed into a simile of his own face. At the same time, Alvod felt his conception shift, suddenly seeing his surroundings from two directions.

It worked.

While Alvod’s gambit was a success, he knew it wouldn’t last long. A vortex appeared before him, and the small ball shot inside, heading straight for the Realm Core.

“Eat your fill, little spirit,” Alvod smiled, though he felt a pang of loss upon sacrificing so much Primal Dao. That small chalice had almost bankrupted him, and now only a third remained. “A remnant obsession thinking themselves an ancient cultivator. You thought I needed to kill you to achieve my aim? Since you are struggling to hold on, why don’t you show me the comprehension of a vaunted Autarch? A final opportunity to rekindle your lost glory.”

A piercing cry echoed out from the vortex just as it closed, and Alvod snorted as the wheels turned another ninety degrees. The shock of being forcibly infused with all that Dao made the spirit momentarily lose its mind, allowing his plan to proceed. Of course, that was just an indirect benefit.

The ancient Dao locked in the Realm Core needed to be ignited. If that failed, all else was for naught. Without it to act as a sacrifice, the Heavens wouldn’t descend, making fools out of everyone here. Thankfully, Alvod could already feel the buildup in the heart of the ocean, and the sky outside rumbled with even greater furor. It wasn’t long now.

Satisfied, Alvod’s gaze turned back to the situation outside. The Godslayer Spears were almost upon him, but he didn’t even feel a ripple in his heart at these siege arrays, each containing the power to completely extinguish the life of a Peak Monarch.

“I guess I should be honored you use these things against me, but it appears I have been too low-key the past years. You dare stand in defiance of me, Eveningtide Asura?” Alvod growled as [Lamentation Point], his trident and primary Spirit Tool, appeared in his hand. “I guess I have to slay a few chickens to keep the monkeys at bay.”

Another vortex appeared, and he pointed his weapon toward the hole, unleashing his wrath.

* * *

Space groaned as Refestus desperately squeezed through the crack, the light from his ancestral talisman dimming by the second. The spatial turbulence pressed closer to his body, and panic filled his heart as he struggled with all his might.

Suddenly, he was through, shooting through the vacuum of space with the pent-up momentum of his daring escape. It worked! Refestus was beyond relieved when he saw the familiar world disks in the distance. His clan should still be okay. He’d been worried over the past two years, so much so, he left early even though it went against his orders.

Refestus had known things were bad even after the first month inside the trial, but he only realized the true gravity of the situation when the sky started to tear apart. Suspicious events had passed one after another, with the foreign Hegemons causing one scene after another. Local elites such as himself could only stay out of the way, trying to fish in the muddied waters and complete the tasks they’d been assigned by the council.

But how could they deal with kill-squads of foreign Hegemons with far superior equipment and heritages? He had personally witnessed a clash between the Eidolon and some elites from the Radiant Temple. The cataclysmic battle seemed like a struggle between Monarchs than Hegemons. Since then, Refestus had just gone through the motions to complete his tasks, focusing on survival.

It didn’t take a genius to realize something was different about this trial, and the whole cursed realm collapsing was the final straw. Most Hegemons opted to set up protective arrays and weather the storm until they would be sent out by the Heavens, but seeing the actions of those two Eidolon had filled Refestus with doubt.

Would some defensive arrays really be enough?

If it was, then why did the two ghosts cover themselves in awe-inspiring arrays and slip through the spatial cracks in the sky, leaving the trial early? Refestus had come to a decision, and he followed in the wake of the two imperials, opting to squeeze into a spatial tear in a bid to survive. The lack of other cultivators around him proved he was among the first to find their way out.

However, a single look around tampered his celebratory mood, and once more filled him with dread. Heedless of anything else, he started flying for his life in a desperate struggle to get as far away from the Twilight Ascent as possible. What sort of madness had gripped the old monsters this time around?

A sea of blood churned across the sky, the crashing waves sounding like a million heartbeats that set Refestus’ blood ablaze, like it wanted to slip out of his body and join the sanguine waters. There were also innumerable crystals that emitted a mysterious haze, and the lights within threatened to pull his soul free.

Most terrifying of all were the nine spears shooting toward the heart of the Twilight Ascent, each of them controlled by one of the harbor’s true leaders. Refestus grew cold when he spotted the Faebloom Monarch, the leader of the treants, his crown radiating blinding power as he shot toward the ghastly lights.

Another spike was pushed forth by Artolo, the warmongering Corpselord whose infamy was known across the whole Zervereth Sector. Even Rhodium, the Bluearch Monarch and the current leader of the Twilight Council, controlled one of the spikes shooting straight for the Twilight Ascent.

Refestus almost cried having followed his guts, leaving early before those shockingly large needlepoints stabbed into the Twilight Ocean. The Mystic Realm was already teetering at the brink of collapse, and the Twilight Council seemed intent on putting it out of its misery.

A red light illuminated the area for a moment before it disappeared. It didn’t seem like much, but that brief flash was enough to fill Refestus with even greater horror. He puked a huge mouthful of blood as innumerable wounds opened up throughout his body, and he desperately ate one of his lifesaving pills while trying to get his rampaging Miasma under control.

He glanced back to see what was going on, just in time to witness two towering giants rise from the bloody ocean. Both reached over ten kilometers in the air, bloody devils with four wings on their backs. One held a spear even larger than the incoming spikes, while the other was surrounded by three spinning rivers of extremely condensed blood.

A similar scene was taking place in the ghastly haze as three massive ghosts took form. Refestus wasn’t very clear about Ghost Dao techniques, but he felt a deep dread as he saw the twisted visages of the three avatars. The ghost in the middle also had a long horn that emitted a sinister pitch-black aura, and Refestus screamed when he felt his Soulwarding Gem crack.

He urgently looked away before more of his protections broke, his mind reeling at the implications of what he just witnessed.

Dao Avatars. Refestus blanched upon realizing these foreign Monarchs were going all out, unheedingly unleashing large-scale skills that were banned in almost all cities of the Multiverse. Similar scenes took place atop the nine spikes, as the vaunted members of the Twilight Council fully unleashed their auras.

Normally, Refestus would be cheering on the council with all his heart, perhaps even joining the struggle. But this was so far beyond his capabilities that it wasn’t even funny. No matter what side walked away victorious, it was doubtful the Twilight Harbor would even survive the event.

His thoughts turned to his descendants on the disk, and he forcibly rotated his energy to start moving again. Their clan only had Six Hegemons. The Clan Leader had already fallen in the Twilight Ascent, and who knew if the third elder would make it out. The two elders who remained behind had only entered Hegemony with the help of pills and other resources. They were stuck right at the beginning, barely stronger than an elite E-grade cultivator.

Refestus was the only one who would be able to protect the clan from the upheavals that would follow this war. He couldn’t take any risks here.

However, dread filled his heart as he felt another aura behind him. An enormous trident had appeared, and its very presence put immense pressure on the whole area. The bloody ocean seemed especially affected, and its waters frothed furiously in response.

The already towering aura just kept rising, until it reached a crescendo. Refestus felt death looming over his shoulders, and he couldn’t help but look over one more time as he ran for his life.

Two golden balls of frantic waters shot forward, their surface covered in immensely powerful runes. They were on a collision course for the incoming spears, aiming for both the weapon and the controller. Artolo summoned thousands of enormous chains, and space itself was ripped apart as they drew a ruthless arc toward the water bombs.

A huge golem appeared as well, conjured by the elemental who controlled another spike. The golem punched into the air, and enormous cracks of vibrant Life spread forward with blinding speed. The councilors’ attacks clashed, slamming into the incoming spheres, but they’d clearly underestimated the power they contained.

Chains snapped and the golem crumbled as the spheres continued on. The two Monarchs were shocked, and huge amounts of energy churned around them as they prepared their next move.

But there was no time. After the initial clash, the runes on the spheres of waters lit up, and the two balls veritably teleported, prompting them to become impaled on the enormous spears. It felt like time had stopped, but reality soon came crashing down as the water bombs burst.

It looked like two golden suns were unleashed, with enough energy to turn Refestus into cinders a thousand times over. The explosion swallowed the whole spears along with the two Monarchs who controlled them. Refestus’ mind turned blank as he felt the Dao contained in the shimmering light.

It was like he was gazing into the eyes of the Heavens themselves, two fiery orbs of life and death. But the impression only lasted a moment, before a shockwave rocked reality itself. Space was twisted and compacted as the chaotic wave of Dao and unbridled energy pushed forward, each moment swallowing dozens of miles while the epicenter became a zone of utter destruction.

There was no time to run. There was no time to set up any defenses, not that it would do him any good. Refestus could only say a mental prayer for his descendants, hoping they would survive this calamity. Or at least face as painless an end as himself.

A moment later, the wave passed him by, and Refestus Ynovium was no longer.

* * *

Zac looked around for any more attacks, but a pained wail from the Realm Spirit rocked the whole city. It seemed the Radiant Temple managed to pull one over on the Havarok Empire and Qi’Sar, much to Zac’s delight. Of course, that only dealt with his most immediate problem.

Huge scars spread across the sky, vortices leading out of the Mystic Realm. He saw how torrents of energy and matter were being dragged inside every second as the Twilight Ocean collapsed. Zac peered into the Void, looking for clues about the outside, but there was nothing to be found at the other side of those tears. There was just endless darkness, making it uncertain if they actually led to the Twilight Harbor.

Another shudder rocked the whole Mystic Realm, and a fearful shout sounded in the distance. It was almost time, and he took out the communication crystal one final time.

“This is it,” Zac said. “Good luck out there.”

“There’s a minute or two remaining I think,” Catheya sighed on the other side. “Should we gather up?”

“We better not,” Zac muttered after some hesitation. “I kind of infuriated the Realm Spirit just now.”

“Of course you did,” Catheya laughed. “It’s comforting to see that some things stay the same even as the world crumbles.”

Zac smiled as he looked over his shoulder, just in case.

“It’s been fun traveling together,” Catheya continued. “I hope we can meet up again. The road of cultivation is long, and it’s better traversed with some company.”

“Likewise,” Zac smiled. “I think I will have to lay low for a bit after this, but I hope we can meet again. Perhaps in the Heartlands, even.”

“The Heavens protect us,” Catheya giggled.

Zac hesitated, then decided to come clean. “I’ve spoken with your ancestor.”

“You have! How? What did she say?” Catheya exclaimed with shock.

“Nevermind how. She said she cannot halt her cultivation right now. But she promised me that the threat facing the Sharva’Zi Clan has been averted.”

He couldn’t bear telling the whole truth, where it seemed like Be’Zi had abandoned her previous self altogether. Instead, he mixed truths and falsehoods.

“She cannot come after all?” Catheya said with some despondency. “Well, thank you for try—”

Catheya never finished the sentence as a weird fluctuation rippled through the Mystic Realm, causing the communication crystal to malfunction. Zac sighed as he put the crystal away before he looked up with a mix of anticipation and trepidation. The tears in the sky had combined, turning into an enormous hole that expanded with extreme speed.

In just a few seconds, it had covered half the sky, and the ocean waters were suddenly just gone, reduced to a chaotic mix of Miasma and Cosmic Energy. This was it. Zac transformed into yet another appearance while he covered himself in talismans. He urgently swore at the System to hurry up, and finally, the prompt he’d waited for appeared.

The enormous spatial tear was descending like a shroud of darkness, and Zac hurriedly ate two pills while he fervently covered himself in an ashy mixture. One of the pills was another healing pill, while the second was a Karma-breaking pill that would hopefully strengthen the efficacy of the compound he used on his body.

Next, he activated the array around his Specialty Core, hiding his unique constitution from any prying eyes outside. The darkness was almost upon him, and Zac looked around the crumbling world with a mix of emotions. He couldn’t help but wonder if Catheya was right as he thought back to the events over the past two years.

His goal for the Twilight Harbor had simply been to push his Draugr race to D-grade, and perhaps buy some cultivation resources for himself and the Einherjar. How had it ended up with an ancient Mystic Realm collapsing and him making enemies of multiple factions that could annihilate the whole Zecia Sector if they so desired?

Were these shocking events related to the Stele of Conflict or was it simply the System pushing him further down this path of no return? Or was it simply bad luck? In either case, it left him with few options of what to do next.

It was time for him to die.

22

FERTILIZER FOR ONE’S PATH

Rhodium burned with anxiety as he saw Artolo fall, unable to withstand even the opening salvo of the Eveningtide Asura. Ovo still stood, but the Godslayer Spike the Rox’At Elemental controlled had been damaged so badly it might as well be considered an ornament. It was already leaking its energies, forming a zone of destruction stretching a dozen kilometers in each direction.

Things had gone out of control too quickly. They’d all been in meditation to reach a sublime mental state before the battle, but had been forced to wake before the designated time and immediately set out. Why had the realm crumbled early, and why had the System involved itself? They had no choice but to make their move before the Godslayer Array had properly charged up, and they decided to control the spikes themselves instead.

That cut the might of the spikes in half, but that was only part of the problem. How could someone native to the frontier be this powerful?

Especially someone who spent almost half of his lifespan in secluded cultivation, unable to gather rare treasures and honing his skills in battle. According to their estimates, Alvod Jondir had been severely wounded when usurping the throne, his cultivation regressed to Middle C-grade. They figured the false lord to be powerful thanks to having forcibly increased his cultivation to Divine Monarchy, but he actually surpassed his grade in strength.

It made their mission almost insurmountable, and Rhodium was filled with regrets. If only they’d found out about these plans earlier they would have been able to enact something more airtight. They barely managed to construct these spikes, yet they didn’t even have a proper delivery system. Rhodium was all too aware they couldn’t stop here.

The spikes had been activated, and they would only last for a few more minutes before their pathways would crack from the rampant energies contained within.

“Alvod Jondir shouldn’t be able to unleash more attacks in the short run,” Heryes’ voice echoed in his mind. “I will try to deal with one of the bloodsuckers.”

“I will assist you,” Rhodium said as an azure river appeared around him. “We need to restrain them at least, allowing the others to finish the objective. The Faebloom Monarch will restrain the ghosts with Ovo and Ubulo.”

“Alright,” Heryes agreed.

Rhodium sent a command to his spike and it changed course, now heading straight for the two sanguine avatars instead of the anomaly. The necromancer followed suit, and a towering skeleton appeared behind her. The skeleton grabbed the Godslayer Spike, intent on using it as a weapon.

The two bloody avatars got ready to meet their attack, the mage choosing to deal with the skeleton. The rivers that had surrounded her shot forward, each containing boundless amounts of Essence Blood, making it wildly powerful.

The skeleton responded in kind, spitting out a shroud of condensed putrefaction. Heryes had no doubt implanted the ancient skull of her prime servant with terrifying toxins, and Rhodium prayed it would be enough to putrefy the blood of the Eternal Clan. Rhodium had no time to worry about his ally though and focused his attentions on the other avatar.

Tens of thousands of runes were appearing around the vampire’s spear as he had retracted his weapon. He was building momentum, and Rhodium couldn’t tarry. He infused his Dao into the azure river, prompting it to shudder as it grew massive scales. An earth-shattering roar caused space itself to crack as the river turned into the simile of a primordial flood dragon.

It shot forward, its advance causing space itself to freeze before cracking.

However, the vampire had finished his preparations, and he stabbed forward with furious momentum. Rhodium thought to block, but suddenly felt the shadow of death loom over him, and he quickly formed a few incantations, prompting himself and the spike to shift ten kilometers away.

It was a wise decision, as the space where he had previously occupied disintegrated, forming an almost endless scar in space. The dragon was badly maimed, but its core runes were still intact, allowing Rhodium to reform it.

The stab had carried a shocking amount of force, far beyond what Rhodium expected. He looked over with worry, just in time to see the three rivers break out from the restrictive haze of Heryes. The streams darkened considerably, but they still maintained more than half of their essence. They shot forward with almost untouched momentum, and Rhodium’s face sunk when he Heryes’ prized possession was ripped apart by the three frothing rivers.

The necromancer paled in response, her mind was no doubt wounded after the destruction of her puppet. She wasn’t ready to give in, and a storm of millions of bones poured out of her sleeves, forming a dense cloud that spread over five kilometers. The bones swirled and crashed into each other, causing a deafening cacophony that rippled toward the rivers.

They were forming an ancestral curse, and Rhodium shuddered as he unwittingly moved a bit closer to Heryes. Space around her was bound to be excluded from the cursed field, which was important to know considering the crazy necromancer’s proclivity for wanton destruction when going all out.

Meanwhile, a huge explosion behind Rhodium confirmed what he’d been worried about. The monstrous jab had continued until it slammed into a world disk. The disks were covered in extremely mighty arrays, but Rhodium could feel that most of the restrictions had already broken down. He needed to make a move. If things continued this way, there wouldn’t be anything left to salvage even if they won.

Though his heart bled, he still took out the small blue gemstone he’d saved for over two hundred thousand years. It was supposed to be one of the core components the next time he expanded his inner world, yet he was forced to use it in a situation like this. He absorbed the primordial force within, and another roar echoed through the cosmos as the azure dragon doubled in size and shot toward the avatar with newfound vigor.

Meanwhile, Rhodium formed a series of seals, and tens of thousands of lances appeared behind him, each one a hundred meters long. A series of azure halos lit up around each one, filling the spear with energy until they shot forward with enough speed to cleave the Void itself. They fell like deadly rain, heading straight for the three Monarchs below.

He hoped a direct attack would lessen the pressure on his companion and provide an opening for someone to launch their spike at the spatial anomaly. But a deep heartbeat echoed out through the area, and Rhodium was shocked to find cracks appear on his own heart. The damage quickly healed though, and he instilled more and more energy into his spear array.

In response, a huge tidal wave of blood rose behind the three Eternal Clan members, and it pushed to swallow the azure spears within. Rhodium grimaced when he felt the connection to his skill break long before they managed to pierce where his targets sat.

He hadn’t even managed to make them move out of the way.

The whole area was crying as almost two dozen Monarchs unleashed one mighty attack after another. This place would be tainted for tens of thousands of years as a result, but there was nothing to be done about it. Both he and the other councilors fought desperately to reach the spatial anomaly, but the imperials were far more powerful than they expected.

They managed to occupy five of the spikes, with only two managing to enter the spatial anomaly. While far below what they hoped for, it was better than nothing. Even that was only thanks to the Radiant Temple staying out of the way, for some reason content with circulating at the edge of the battlefield.

Just two wouldn’t do it. They had estimated needing at least four to collapse the realm entirely. Now, they would just become a small thorn in the Eveningtide Asura’s side, unless they managed to force two more inside.

Suddenly, a deep gong echoed out from above, and Rhodium’s eyes widened when he saw the roiling clouds open up. First, it was just a small hole in the middle, a tiny weakness that leaked a marvelous shimmer. At the same time, the spatial anomaly was twisting, almost beating like a heartbeat as it started turning.

Another gong, and innumerable shimmering lights simultaneously flashed into being, almost forming a belt around the battlefield. The golden light had the mark of the System, and Rhodium spotted cultivators emitting weak auras within. It was no doubt the trial-takers being taken out of the crumbling realm, but he had no time to worry about them with what was about to happen.

The clanking of a wheel turning could be heard from within the anomaly, and a third gong rang, harkening the arrival of the Heavens. The small hole in the thunderous cloud enlarged, growing to a fifty-kilometer-wide hollow in an instant. From within, an endless amount of light poured down upon them all, drenching them in the chorus of the Boundless Dao.

“The eye of the Heavens,” Rhodium whispered with a mix of marvel and horror as the energy inside his body went haywire from being exposed to the Heavenly Law.

They were too late.

The destruction had come too quickly, and the Eveningtide Asura had already seized the opportunity while their plans had fallen apart. The fact that the Heavens descended meant the Realm Core had been seized and repurposed, used to conjure a Heavenly Descent.

Rhodium’s thoughts were a mess, with part of him wanting to furiously fight, to confirm his path by destroying another’s. Part of him simply wanted to run away. Except he was locked in place, eyes glued to the spectacle above. From how the battlefield had grown quiet, the same was true for the others.

The Heavens itself had descended, bringing the true Dao to bear. Inside the radiant lights, the answers to all questions that had plagued him for the past eons were hidden. If Rhodium could simply find the right stream, he could finally break past the bottleneck that locked him in place since he lost his momentum.

A shocked shriek ripped Rhodium out of his reverie, and he looked over with confusion to see his fellow councilors attacking each other. The Faebloom Monarch had ambushed Ovo, who was already wounded after withstanding the attack of the Eveningtide Asura. A similar scene took place on the other side of the anomaly.

A wave of dizziness hid him, and his eyes widened in alarm as he furiously looked over at Heryes, who sighed as the storm of bones headed his way.

“You!” Rhodium roared, knowing he’d been poisoned.

“I’m sorry, old friend,” Heryes smiled, though there was no mirth in her eyes. “Death is inevitable. With the Heavenly Descent a fact, the harbor has reached its end. The guild needed to plan for all contingencies. You forget, our situation is far worse than yours, considering our leanings.”

“You should have fought twice as hard to protect your sanctuary,” Rhodium growled as he desperately tried to recoup his energy.

But it was like his Cosmic Energy had turned into a gas that steamed out from his pores, and his inner world became shrouded in darkness. Meanwhile, the gargantuan bones of the broken skeleton scattered across the area started to regroup, once more forming an undamaged warrior that headed straight for Rhodium instead of the imperials.

Two of the vampire Monarchs didn’t sit idly by, and added insult to injury as they both had their avatars restrain and target him. However, the leader of the three ignored him, instead swallowing some small bead as thousands of tendrils emerged from his back, shooting at the anomaly below.

Six golden rings above his head swirled, forming a celestial song that sang of the cycle of life and death, of blood and war. The chimes fused with the Heavenly song from above, trying to harmonize. The man was trying to supplant the Heavenly Descent, but Rhodium wasn’t in a position to care about that.

He saw the crashing waves of blood surging for him, yet he was barely able to move between the poison and the pressure from above. There was no point in lingering, and he activated his Spatial Displacement Treasure. But despair filled his heart as he felt how space itself was sealed.

Would he really fall here?

“The Heavens might accept your offering, but we do not abide!” a snort sounded in his ears.

The voice wasn’t loud, but it contained a tremendous force as it echoed out through the cosmos. It contained the might and will of the Dao itself, and one avatar after another broke apart, unable to maintain their form in front of a superior truth as an impossible pressure descended on the area. Even the shimmering light from the Dao Ocean above dimmed, temporarily suppressed by an unbreakable will.

The next moment, the universe was split apart by a horizontal scar that stretched as far as his eyes could see. Out from it, a celestial army emerged. Innumerable of warriors, each one reaching hundreds of meters in the air. They exuded a bloodlust that drowned the whole Twilight Harbor in a red haze, but their gazes were thankfully trained on the undead imperials and the spatial anomaly, rather than at himself.

Behind them, an impossibly large presence took form, its hands holding apart space itself as he pushed his torso through. He was tens of thousands of meters tall, and Rhodium’s blood boiled when looking at the inscrutable tattoos that covered the giant’s face. They spoke of bloodshed and war, of unquestionable might and victory.

The man’s other half was still on the other side of the Void, but his shocking aura forcibly kept the spatial tear open. Atop the man’s head sat a jade crown, six red gemstones inlaid on it a clear answer to who arrived. The Sixth Protector. Rhodium’s breath quickened when he realized what was going on, and despair turned into elation. They might just make it after all.

The Havarok Empire had actually managed to send an Autarch through the Tarramak Vault. In the flesh, no less.

* * *

Catheya looked around, horrified at the auras she could vaguely sense through the golden barrier.

“Are you two okay?” she asked.

“We’re fine,” Qirai wheezed, though Catheya noticed her aura was extremely unstable.

It was no wonder. The Mystic Realm had fallen apart, and their exit had been bereft of the stabilizing arrays like on Space Gates and teleportation arrays. They had been dragged through the Void, their bodies exposed to chaotic Spatial Energies along with the exhaust of the realm itself.

Thankfully, the System had taken mercy on them, erecting the golden barriers after they withstood half the journey on their own. However, the golden glow around them was slowly dissipating, and she could already smell the cataclysmic danger that waited outside.

“Get ready to teleport away,” she said as she ate a soul-soothing pill, and her two followers followed suit.

Ten seconds later, the shielding dissipated, but they didn’t even have time to activate their escape talismans before they were subdued and immobilized by multiple layers of terrifying pressure. If not for the defensive equipment they wore, their bodies might have started crumbling then and there.

Catheya was filled with unbridled dread. She’d known it would be bad, but this was beyond even what she could have imagined. In the sky, extremely dense clouds stretched on as far as she could see. In its center, a marvelous light shimmered, but she hurriedly looked away when she felt her soul shuddered precipitously.

She had a good idea of what that light was, and it was not something an E-grade cultivator like herself could meddle with. The Heavenly Secrets were not so easily divulged. Besides, this was no time to enter meditation. Over a dozen Monarchs floated around the spatial anomaly, and they’d clearly been fighting just a moment ago.

But now, they all faced a terrifying army, led by a man of shocking proportions. Catheya had never seen her family’s Autarch in the flesh, but she’d sensed the aura left behind by him and her ancestors. This aura was weaker, though extremely condensed, which wasn’t a surprise considering he was truly here.

Catheya didn’t understand what was going on. This sector of the frontier lacked proper Space Gates to allow a being as powerful as an Autarch to pass through. Had he sailed here across the vast darkness, spending God-knows how much time and even harming his foundations? And if they knew of this event that long ago, they surely should have come up with some better plans.

It didn’t make sense, yet he was here, his mere presence causing space to shudder. The implications were terrifying. Although, not everyone seemed to be as subdued by the arrival.

“Since everyone has gathered, let’s get this show on the road,” an unfamiliar man laughed, his voice filled with boundless conviction. It was the Eveningtide Asura.

The next moment, the Twilight Ascent exploded, unleashing a surge of rampant energy that seemed without limit. Catheya looked at the almost blinding display with dismay, knowing that even a fraction of that force would be able to extinguish her in body and soul. Thankfully, the energy didn’t erupt in a shockwave of unbridled energy and Dao.

Instead, it poured into the dozens of Twilight Rivers that formed a spider web through the Twilight Harbor, and they lit up with unprecedented might as they started to move, gathering toward the heart of the Harbor. The huge avatar snorted and spat a ball of destruction toward the core, but the rivers formed an enormous cocoon around it.

The power in the attack contained enough energy to kill a Peak Monarch, yet the rivers managed to withstand it. The Autarch had controlled his power as well, and not so much as a ripple spread out toward the lower-grade cultivators.

“Alvod Jondir. I have come to enact judgment on your sins,” the Autarch growled, his voice sounding like Heavenly Law.

“Not even the Heavens can judge me, Protector, let alone you,” the Eveningtide Asura laughed from within the cocoon. “You shall all become fertilizer for my path.”

The sky rumbled in response, as though enraged by the proclamation. Nine purple tendrils descended toward the cocoon, and screams reverberated all around her as their aura covered the Twilight Harbor. Catheya squeezed her eyes shut, feeling herself losing control. The Heavens had been pulled down to the frontier, and nothing could withstand its wrath.

Her mind drifted as she lost sensation, and an endless cold gripped her. Darkness crept closer, and the last thing she remembered was the silhouette of a man sitting on a balcony, enjoying the scenery of the Twilight Harbor.

23

RIP AND TEAR

Zac was startled awake by pained cries and rampant energies that rocked the area. It looked like the transfer out of the Twilight Ocean had knocked him unconscious, which wasn’t surprising considering the wretched state his body and soul were in. Thankfully he’d covered himself in defensive talismans just in case, and they had activated just like they were supposed to.

Not that it was completely necessary. Zac looked around with bleary eyes, and saw how people kept appearing in golden bubbles that contained the aura of the System. As expected, it provided some measure of protection for the trial-takers upon their departure from the Twilight Ocean.

However, the System wasn’t willing to overexert itself. Zac’s own barrier was already gone, exposing him to the harsh realities of his surroundings. He’d felt himself under immense pressure from the moment he woke up, and Zac recognized that aura all-too-well. It was the Heavens, the real one that had almost blasted him to smithereens a few times.

The whole area was drowned in that ancient wrath, and his Cosmic Energy was extremely turbid, barely answering his call. Not only that, there were profoundly powerful insights suffused into the air. Zac didn’t know if it was a result of vast Dao Fields that covered thousands of kilometers or if it was the lingering result of two powerful attacks colliding.

In either case, it meant trouble, and the more he saw, the more horrified Zac became. The whole Twilight Harbor was on the brink of collapse, with thousands of spatial tears stretching like tendrils as far as he could see.

It was like being caught in the middle of a three-dimensional spider web, where the wrong move would end with him becoming swallowed by the Void or cut apart by the scars in reality itself. Aside from the tears, space was littered with everything from struggling cultivators to whole palatial ruins floating about.

There weren’t too many cultivators appearing in flashes of light any longer. Most had either fallen or left already, and he spotted quite a few fleeing people moving away from the inner parts of the Twilight Harbor. Problem was, the Twilight Rivers with their spatial arrays were gone while space was unstable. Traversing this kind of war zone at the E-grade was extremely perilous, and you would have to survive for days in this environment until you could reach the outer edge of the harbor, where the teleportation arrays waited. Provided they still worked.

As to where the huge buildings and other debris came from, it wasn’t a mystery. Zac had been let out somewhere in the middle of the harbor, with world disks both in front of him and behind. More than half of the disks had already broken apart, and whole civilizations had become drifting space debris.

And there were corpses. So many corpses.

Zac’s brain could barely comprehend such a loss of life. The space between the destroyed world disks was littered with bodies, most of them F-grade mortals judging by the lack of spirituality on their bodies. They’d probably been subjected to the vacuum of outer space the moment the atmosphere of the Twilight Harbor collapsed, and that wasn’t something a mortal could withstand for more than a couple of seconds.

Of course, they might have already been dead by the time their word disks broke apart. The force required for something like that would most likely be powerful enough to extinguish their souls in an instant.

Zac couldn’t actually see the source of the mayhem. A huge chunk of a broken world disk, spanning hundreds of kilometers across, hovered in front of him, blocking most of his vision. It was a bit disconcerting to not see what was going on, but it might have been this chunk of stone that protected him while he was unable to protect himself.

A huge shockwave from the heart of the harbor made reality groan, and large cracks spread across his protective disk. However, it withstood the impact, severely weakening the destructive wave. Not only that, it was like space was suddenly lit up with millions of shimmering stars, absorbing a lot of the errant energies before dimming again.

There was no need to guess where that shimmer had come from. It was the method of the Radiant Temple, where someone had set up a massive protective array that stretched impossibly far and farther still. It helped restrain the errant energies somewhat, and had no doubt saved countless lives already.

Of course, Zac didn’t believe the temple only protected him and the other E-grade cultivators out of benevolence. If killing a bunch of mortals and low-grade cultivators put a stain on your Karma, then the opposite was probably true as well. Since Ventus liked to meddle with fate, some elder from their faction was probably using the situation to rack up Karmic Merit. Saving lives to cultivate.

Zac couldn’t be picky. Their motives might be impure, but it was still a lifesaver considering the might contained in those strikes. Even with [Void Zone] activated, his bones groaned in protest as the wave passed him by. Zac was so exhausted, but he needed to hold on for a while longer.

There were a few things he needed to be done immediately, and he hurriedly took out the prepared item. In front of him, his twin appeared. Or rather, a body that looked almost exactly like Arcaz Black, except for his abyssal eyes being gouged out. Runes covered his skin as Zac infused the body with his Dao, except the marks were fading fast. In a few moments, they would be gone entirely, having fulfilled their purpose.

It wasn’t a clone, but something darker in nature. The man was once a Revenant, one of the stronger enemies he’d fought on the way back from the chasm. He’d been part of an elite squad that tried to ambush him, but had since been reduced to a tool that would hopefully help Zac out.

Arcaz Black’s identity had become extremely problematic, and he had to do everything in his power to steer attention away from himself, from Earth, and from the Zecia Sector as a whole. Otherwise, Alvod Jondir might come knocking in a few centuries—at that point an Autarch bent on revenge.

Now, there was also Hive Ouro and the Eternal Clan to worry about. He couldn’t put all his faith in Catheya’s ability to trade his allegiance and the fact of him being an Edgewalker in return for safe harbor. Especially not after his talk with Qi’Sar. Zac had thought himself something unique, but if a sliver consciousness of an ancient Autarch knew about people like him, he might not be as valuable to the Undead Empire as he’d hoped.

And even if Catheya managed to garner some interest for him, it might only be among the Draugr factions. It would still be in his interest to throw off the scent for the others, specifically by having Arcaz Black ‘die.’

This solution was something he prepared while waiting for the gates to the City of Ancients to open, though Varo and Catheya were the ones who did most of the heavy lifting. The corpse in front of him had become fatelinked with him, where any Karmic Links that led to Zac would also lead to this corpse. With him having used multiple Karma-cleansing items, along with activating the Array around his Duplicity Core, those links should now only lead to the corpse.

Essentially, pinning the blame on a dead guy.

Initially, the method was only meant to obscure one’s Karmic threads, but Zac had taken it one step further after Catheya and Varo were done with their ministrations. With the help of his Shard of Creation, he transformed the man’s body into a copy of his own. However, he hadn’t managed to recreate the signature Abyssal eyes and opted to simply gouge them out.

Thus, Arcaz Black had fallen at the end of the Twilight Ascent, his body set to drift in the ruins of the Twilight Harbor. This trick wasn’t perfect, but it should make any attempts of tracking him down far more difficult. An adept Karmic Cultivator would probably realize something was amiss, but with the corpse’s Karmic threads shining bright, it would become nigh-impossible to find the real Zac.

Thankfully, the harbor itself would help him even further according to Catheya. With so many old monsters gathering in one spot and duking it out, the fate of an E-grade warrior should be drowned out in the white noise of their Dao. Even the Heavens had descended to muddy the waters. It was one of the few good points with the current chaos.

“Thank you,” Zac sighed as he pushed the body away, letting it drift and join the innumerable corpses that littered the area.

Ideally, Zac also wanted to take a [Coward’s Escape] pill the moment the realm collapsed. But he ultimately decided against it. Even after getting the prompt that indicated he cinched the first-position title for the trial. He really wanted to get rid of the quest that the Eveningtide Asura forced upon him, but eating that pill would mean failing the quest for upgrading the Creator Shipyard as well.

[Materials for Karunthel] was a chained quest, and Zac feared not getting the customized D-grade Cosmic Vessel would be the least of his losses if he ate the Pseudo-Death pill. Most likely, he’d be stripped of the qualifications to upgrade the shipyard altogether. He was on good standing with Karunthel, but that didn’t matter considering it was the System that set the rules.

He didn’t have any other means to deal with the lingering quest nor the threat it might pose—although, the issue was fast solving itself. The whole harbor was falling apart, so the quest should automatically fail sooner or later, considering how it was a decree quest linked to the Twilight Harbor.

Having discarded the Karmic dummy, Zac wasted no time to start his own escape. He didn’t know who was winning between Alvod and the other factions, but between the Heavenly wrath and the earth-shattering clashes, it was just a matter of time before disaster struck his area as well.

He first tried activating the escape bangle on his arm, and as expected, there was no response. The first function of the bangle only worked in the Zecia Sector, unfortunately. Zac tried various other escape treasures as well, but they only fizzled out, failing to activate. No wonder the people in the distance were flying rather than zapping away.

Space was sealed, making teleportation impossible.

Zac had no option but to start moving, and he released some Cosmic Energy to move through the vacuum of space. Thankfully, there were tons of debris lying around, allowing him to continuously use [Earthstrider] to drastically increase his speed. Unfortunately, each activation resulted in a throbbing pain in his nodes, and activation was extremely arduous because of the Heavenly pressure.

Thankfully, both those issues were solved by using [Force of the Void]. With his Bloodline Talent, no energy circulation was required, alleviating the pressure on his nodes. At the same time, the restrictions from the Heavens didn’t seem to affect his unique Bloodline Energy. It allowed him to move quickly, though he was expending quite a bit of Void Energy.

A scream of danger from behind made him flash out of the way, and a gust passed by where he previously stood. At first, it looked like nothing, but Zac was filled with horror when space in that area simply disintegrated. A scar dozens of miles long and hundreds of meters high had appeared out of nowhere.

The corpses that littered the area were utterly annihilated by the attack, and the nearby debris was dragged into the enormous spatial tear left behind after the gust. Zac felt the pull, and he desperately activated his movement skill over and over until he got far enough.

Zac’s heart beat like a drum as he looked back, only to find that the world disk which protected him before had been cut in two, exposing the scene beyond. The first thing he noticed was the enormous avatar almost looking like Poseidon, wielding an immense trident as dozens of rivers surrounded him, each one piercing toward the sky.

It didn’t take him long to realize who it was; Alvod Jondir, the Eveningtide Asura. He was right in the middle of it, attacked from every single direction. From the front, a humongous avatar peered out through a vast spatial fold, and Zac’s heart sunk when he felt his aura. It was on par with his mother’s, meaning it was a bonafide Autarch who made an appearance.

However, Zac didn’t get the sense of immensity or profundity from this tattooed man as he did from Be’Zi or A’Zu. Most likely, it was a First-Step Autarch who’d barely managed to break through. Of course, that still meant he was a terrifying existence who could essentially run roughshod in the frontier.

A Havarok Autarch wasn’t the only thing Alvod had to deal with. Simultaneously, a huge depression had opened up in the swirling clouds above. Zac beheld the shimmering lights that descended with marvel. It was Dao, pure Dao that held the secrets of the universe. If he could just absorb a sliver of that light…

Zac shook his head, knowing his limits. Those white tendrils falling like rain, contained true terror. The Eveningtide Asura controlled the rivers, having them clash with the descending punishment. The Twilight River was filled with unprecedented levels of energy, yet they were no match for that mysterious light.

The rivers only managed to withstand the energy for a moment before they disintegrated, resulting in similar eruptions like the one that almost killed him just now. Alvod seemed undeterred, and kept reforming the rivers as a golden pillar rose slowly from his body, heading toward the Dao in the sky.

That pillar contained everything Zac sensed inside the valley and more. The crashing waves pounded in his ears as he looked upon the light and was transported to the edge between night and daybreak. Life was not life, death was not death.

Zac hurriedly shook his head to clear his thoughts. That pillar was perhaps even more lethal to him than the lights in the sky. It represented the path of a Divine Monarch, and its intrusive influence was incredibly powerful, even at this great distance. Worse, it was just one of three such pillars that rose toward the sky.

Alvod’s Dao Pillar wasn’t even the tallest one. While Alvod was busy clashing with a celestial army led by the Havarok giant, tens of thousands of huge red seals hovered right next to him, seemingly trying to fuse with his avatar. The stench of blood reached all the way to where he was, meaning it was no doubt the Eternal Clan.

The shortest pillar was aquamarine-white, and it flickered ominously like it was about to break apart. Three enormous ghosts surrounded it, but a sudden swipe from the Eveningtide Asura cut one of them down. Alvod received a fierce attack from the Havarok Autarch in return, but his gambit was enough to push the Eidolon over the edge, causing the pillar to collapse.

Zac was shocked that all three people were trying to break through at the same time, while fighting each other at that. He’d heard that most Divine Monarchs secluded themselves for thousands of years before making their attempt, as the smallest distraction or stray thought might adversely affect their chances of success.

The situation had become untenable for the ghosts, and an infuriated shriek rippled through the Twilight Harbor. Zac’s mind blurred, his soul covered in cracks, but the churning oceans in his Soul Aperture along with [Soul Guardian] absorbed enough of the wail for his soul to remain intact.

Others weren’t as lucky, and many of those escaping suddenly stopped moving, their souls accidentally crushed by the Eidolon Monarch. Not even the elder from the Radiant Temple could provide enough protection from that shriek.

That wasn’t the end of Zac’s worries, as the ghosts seemed intent on retaliating. The pillar contained a Divine Monarch’s condensed Dao, and Zac saw how it was turned into a terrifying attack directed at Alvod. A ghastly fire consumed the whole avatar in an instant, its radiance overshadowing the Heavens themselves.

Over twenty Twilight Rivers were ripped apart, and more than half of the bloody seals were broken as well. The destruction resulted in a chaotic mix of energies freed from their respective owner’s control, and they immediately rippled outward, destroying everything in its path.

Zac desperately pushed his movement skill to move even faster, the wave of destruction rapidly closing in. He wracked his mind for solutions, but couldn’t come up with anything better than throwing out hundreds of talismans behind him, expending almost half of his Cosmic Energy to activate them all.

The defensive talismans lit up, forming layers upon layers of barriers between Zac and the Monarchs. Zac wasn’t done there, activating [Void Zone] as well. He cursed the fact that he didn’t have any defensive skills to help out, and without any better options, he simply took out some of the D-grade rubble he’d swiped on the way out of the castle, forming a final layer of protection.

The wave crashed past him, and the barriers crumbled in rapid order. Next came the boulder in front of him, turning to dust after enduring a mere instant. Thankfully, [Void Zone] was extremely efficient at weakening uncontrolled energies, and he almost cried in relief when his body was only lacerated with deep cuts as the wave passed him by.

He ate a Soldier Pill and Healing Pill as he resumed his escape, though Zac worried about his prospects. It was one thing to dodge those condensed cuts that ripped space apart. But he only had it in him to block one or two more of those all-consuming waves of destruction, even with the stellar light weakening them considerably.

Meanwhile, there was still days' worth of travel before he reached the edge of the harbor. Zac wracked his brain for a solution, when he spotted something all-too-familiar not too far away.

Wasn’t that…?

24

STRONGER

Zac could barely believe his eyes when he saw the small egg sail past him, barely visible among the endless pieces of rubble. But he was certain. He couldn’t sense his Origin Mark at all, but that was definitely the egg he dropped off at the valley, or at least a copy of it.

A shudder by his chest from [Love’s Bond] confirmed it. No matter whether it was the one he transported to the heart of the Twilight Ocean or another, it was definitely something Alea desperately wanted to consume. Problem was, it had quite the momentum as it soared through the ether, flying away from both the core and Zac.

Toward a spatial tear in the distance.

It might have been expelled along with the cultivators or knocked away during the battle for ascension. Zac had no way of telling why it appeared here, but he unhesitantly changed course, pushing himself to the limit to catch up. Alea’s situation had improved after infusing the coffin with Temporal Energy, but he wouldn’t put his faith in Qi’Sar’s advice.

The Realm Spirit was probably willing to say whatever it needed to get closer to Zac and have him put down his guard, no matter if its advice was true or not. After all, it only needed to fool him until he activated that odd cage array around the infant Realm Spirits. For all Zac knew, infusing [Love’s Bond] with the Temporal Crystals might just have slowed down everything inside the coffin, rather than just the chaotic energies.

[Love’s Bond] might be breaking apart, just at a slower pace. But wasn’t this thing perfect for Alea’s situation? The small egg had been able to refine and purify the energies of the Twilight Ocean, turning them into something useful. Perhaps, it could help Alea do the same.

After everything she’d done for him, he couldn’t back down now, especially when it was just a small detour. He pushed off from a broken store sign that floated next to him, making his way toward the item. However, Zac felt the energy in his body go haywire as he heard an enraged voice roar from behind.

“Enough!”

It didn’t sound like Alvod. A familiar Dao filled it that beat like the drums of war, of clashing steel and bloodied swords. It was the voice of someone who made war their path, and it felt like a general’s order that almost managed to stop Zac in his tracks. It was no doubt the Havarok leader, and a wave of dismay hit him upon realizing the Autarch’s aura was rapidly rising. This wasn’t his full power?

He didn’t know the details, but according to Catheya, there were some issues that prevented Autarchs from freely roaming the “lower realms”, the sectors that didn’t normally have the capabilities to nurture B-grade cultivators. Perhaps that was what had stopped him from simply unleashing a storm of destruction that ripped the Eveningtide Asura apart, but his patience had now run dry.

Zac glanced back. A huge lance had appeared in the crowned giant’s hand, surprisingly similar to the one Zac had seen in the vision from the Stele of Conflict. While the one that the mysterious general had formed out of a crushed moon was crudely formed and filled with the raw and unbridled power of conflict, this weapon instead relied on extremely high-grade runes to attain a similar might.

In either case, it was a terror of a weapon, radiating an aura that almost matched its owner. Space continuously cracked around it, and Zac felt himself pierced by just looking in its direction. It was possible this was the first B-grade treasure he’d seen, and it was trained at Alvod.

At the same time, Zac actually sensed the aura of the Heavens grow deeper, more profound. Not only did the swirling vortex in the sky expand a bit, but there was a secondary source of the feeling coming from within the giant’s body. Then, an enormous rune appeared behind the giant’s back.

Looking at it felt like looking at the shimmering lights in the sky. It wasn’t a snippet of a path or intent taken form. It was pure Dao, imbued with the weight of the Heavens themselves. It was War, and Zac felt the Cosmic Energy in his surroundings bend to the will of the runes, reforming itself under a new world order.

The sky rumbled at the appearance of the brand, and two nearby world disks crumbled, unable to withstand the pressure any longer. The two remaining Dao Pillars weren’t faring much better, and they flickered precipitously like candles in the wind. The two stopped fighting with each other, and Alvod took out an ancient-looking cauldron.

He threw it, and it emitted a multi-colored aura that stabilized the area around him. Zac barely discerned some ancient hymns as well, reminding him of the impression he got from staring into the golden light of [Rapturous Divide]. It was the song of the Arcadia, divine hymns holding the truths of paradise.

Zac forcibly kept his mind from drifting away, speeding toward the egg as he kept track of the events behind him. Alvod’s Dao Pillar stabilized after throwing out the cauldron, and it seemed like he wasn’t planning on backing down even after the Autarch had unleashed an even greater part of his might.

The man from the Eternal Clan was clearly not ready to back down either. A thump echoed out as a red flash appeared from within the sanguine waters near Alvod, and Zac groaned as it felt like his blood was about to be pulled from his body. Only by stopping his movement skill and activating [Void Zone] did he manage to keep his blood to himself.

Others weren’t as lucky, and innumerable red streams shot toward the center of the realm. Millions of millions of bodies were instantaneously exsanguinated, and the blood turned into vast rivers. Zac didn’t know why, but it almost felt like the blood wasn’t being stolen, but rather returned to its origin, like rivers returning to the ocean.

The sanguine pillar stabilized, and Zac actually noticed that both the pillars had grown taller. Did the Havarok Imperial inadvertently help the two by unleashing his Dao? From the looks of it, his Dao had strengthened the connection between the Heavens and this area, making ascension easier.

If that was the case, he was probably out of options but to unleash his true power. The Eveningtide Asura was a known monster, and an elite from the Eternal Clan had to be difficult even for an Autarch to deal with.

“Good!” Alvod laughed as an enormous rowboat appeared above his head, bringing a shocking tidal wave in its wake. “Let’s put it all on the line, for my path.”

“For eternity,” a dour voice echoed out from within the bloody ocean.

From within the bloody ocean, the red light flashed again, lighting up the whole Twilight Harbor, and drenching the Heavens in sanguine luster. The myriad streams of blood condensed around it, forming a massive sword. Zac was dismayed when he felt the might in that weapon. It was clearly controlled by a Divine Monarch, yet it was almost a match to the huge lance.

It was all thanks to that light, that terrifying red light that seemingly had the power to contend against the Heavens themselves.

No matter if it was the rowboat and the living ocean beneath, the lance was rife with the momentum of war or the rapier of the Eternal Clan, their might was just too much. Zac could barely withstand them, and they hadn’t even been launched. How would he possibly survive a clash between the three?

He desperately looked around in search of answers, and his eyes stopped on the egg. There was no other option. Zac propelled himself forward, no longer looking back at the warriors fighting for supremacy. Space itself couldn’t withstand the might of their towering auras colliding.

The whole area buckled and was pushed outward, forming an advance shockwave as the three prepared to put it all on the line. Zac’s surroundings twisted and bent, but he ignored the ominous portents as he desperately jumped from one piece of debris after another to keep his movement skill going.

Each step with [Earthstrider] was pushed to the limits of what the skill could achieve, even if he had to literally step on the drained corpses of the fallen to make it happen. He was a blur that cut through the compacted layers of space. Finally, he reached his destination—the purifier egg. It was just at the edge of the enormous spatial tear which stretched in front of him like a wall of ultimate darkness, taking up his vision.

Behind, the blood-drenched auras kept increasing in intensity, and the stars in the area rapidly dimmed, unable to withstand this kind of output. Zac hurriedly grabbed the egg, not stopping nor turning around. He simply kept going, disappearing in an instant as he jumped again.

Into the Void.

It was the only solution Zac could think of. The Void was dangerous and he couldn’t stay inside for long before succumbing, but was it really more dangerous than two Divine Monarchs duking it out with an Autarch? He wouldn’t bet his life on his Luck being enough to steer the errant bursts of energy from heading his way. It was better to hide between the folds of reality and sneak back through a tear when the fighting was over.

Tearing pain assaulted his body, and it felt like he was being drained. However, the weird feeling abated drastically as he activated [Void Zone] again. It was a relief that his bloodline actually managed to protect him in this dangerous no-man’s-land, but he wasn’t out of the woods just yet.

The spatial tear was open right behind him, exposing him to the events at the heart of the harbor. The tear had been a wall of darkness on the other side, but he could still see the three powerhouses from within the Void. Desperately, Zac tried to move out of the way, and large bursts of Void Energy were exhausted in an effort to gain some traction in this weird dimension.

He was essentially stuck in a waking nightmare as he tried to traverse the nothingness, where he barely moved in place. He’d already come in contact with the odd properties of the Void in the research base, and he had only later learned it mostly stemmed from the fact that the Void lacked the Dao of Space.

It made traversing the Void extremely confusing, considering something that appeared to be right in front of you could be thousands of meters away and vice versa. There was no gravity, no direction. It wasn’t a vacuum—it was nothingness. These odd features are what made teleportation arrays possible, apparently allowing you to move across the Multiverse for a fraction of the energy it should’ve cost.

Of course, that knowledge didn’t help him right now, but he did remember something else. Zac’s mind throbbed and his skin crackled as he deactivated [Void Zone] before emitting as powerful a Dao Field as he could, squeezing what little energy he had left to impose his will on the surroundings. It worked, and he finally found himself moving. He shot one final look at Alvod Jondir as he moved out of the way from the spatial tear.

Even if he was a madman at worst and a ruthless powerhouse who sacrificed everything for the Dao at best, Zac couldn’t help but feel some sort of connection with the man. Their origins were eerily alike, and they even walked similar paths of cultivation. Now, he was struggling all alone, desperately fighting off both an imperial elite and an Autarch to seize an opportunity to continue his cultivation.

Zac was beset by a wave of gloom as he took in that solitary back. Was this what the pursuit of the peak looked like? Withstanding eons of loneliness, shedding everything that didn’t help you on your path. All for what? For longevity, so you could extend your dreary existence? To seize some sort of truth that would satiate your obsession?

What pushed Alvod Jondir to these lengths?

The small wooden boat above Alvod’s head lit up, turning from corporeal to intangible as it melded with the crashing waves that had propped it up. Millions and millions of runes covered the golden waters as it split to strike both the vampire’s rapier and the Havarok Imperial simultaneously. The waves contained unstoppable momentum, the condensed force of his will.

The Autarch wasn’t to be outdone, and the whole world dimmed as he swung his lance in return. Zac desperately wanted to see the result of the clash, but he ultimately chose life over discovery, pushing himself out of the way and losing the vantage.

There was no sound and no warning as countless scars appeared all around him as immense currents of furious energy poured through. The same held true for the scar he’d just entered through. It was like a dam had burst, pouring a hyper-condensed mix of fireworks and lava past the spatial tear.

The current shot forward, pushing for tens of thousands of meters, veritably forming a luminescent river of pure destruction. Similar scenes could be seen all around him, lighting up the whole Void.

Only then did Zac see what his surroundings really looked like. He wasn’t alone. In fact, there were thousands of people in his immediate surroundings, though it was impossible to tell how close they actually were in a place like this. Most of the bodies were fallen mortals who’d probably been sucked into the Void, but there was some activity. And those who were alive mostly emitted the auras of Hegemons.

A few were busy looting the floating corpses, though most were waiting right by one spatial tear or another, clearly having a similar idea of survival as himself. Some had been too eager or simply unlucky, and their disintegrated corpses had been swept away along with the rivers of clashing energies that had formed all over.

That didn’t actually stop people, and Zac frowned when he saw a few particularly powerful Hegemons cover themselves in immensely powerful barriers before they pushed into the churning chaos that covered the spatial tears. Why were they in such a rush? This place was lethal, but Hegemons would surely be able to survive a while in this place.

The scene gave Zac a sinking feeling, and he understood that this place might be far more dangerous than it seemed. He hesitantly looked at the weakening glow of the nearby spatial tear, wondering if he should attempt an escape as well. But even the fading energy between mortals was far beyond what he could handle, at least without the help of the Remnants.

A shudder made Zac look down with surprise, and he saw how [Love’s Bond] took on its backpack form by itself, a wave of hunger blossoming in his mind. He heard the clattering of chains, and he hurriedly handed the egg over that was still in his hands. The lid creaked open, before slamming shut again.

Soon, I will be stronger, Alea’s voice echoed in his mind and the coffin shrunk again.

He sensed a wave of contentment before he lost the connection, but Zac was elated. With such a statement from her, he could let go of any worries that her soul or foundations had been damaged by taking on the Blood Effigy’s attacks. In fact, it looked like she would evolve soon.

But just as one issue was solved, another one cropped up. The spatial tear that was supposed to be his ticket out from the Void suddenly collapsed, unable to withstand the barrage from outside. Left was a long river of rootless energy and vast darkness.

He was stuck.

25

TRAPPED

An obscuring shroud from a Haze Talisman spread around Zac as he hurriedly took out [Verun’s Bite], immediately conjuring a fractal leaf. He knew himself well enough to know that he didn’t have the strength to force open a spatial tear himself, at least not one large and stable enough for him to escape through. Hopefully, the dimensional wall around him would be weakened enough to reopen a pathway.

At the same time, he didn’t dare to immediately cut open a path in case the terrifying energy shockwaves were still raging outside. The long scars in the Void were a poignant reminder of just how ferocious the struggle for ascension was. But no new scars were opening, so he ultimately infused his Daos into the blade one after another as he activated [Rapturous Divide], ignoring the throbbing pain in his head.

The two waves melded, prompting a two-colored sun to erupt a few meters ahead of him. But Zac frowned when he saw that the divide between the Abyss and Arcadia had failed to open a path out of this place. There was a spatial rupture, but it was as thin as a strand of hair, making it sharp enough to kill someone and absolutely useless for escape.

Zac sighed and started searching. Sticking around in the Void for too long was out of the question. The environment itself was harmful, and Zac didn’t want to find out if the Collector had brethren living in this area. He needed to find another exit, and fast. The good news was that far from all the spatial tears that led back to the Twilight Harbor had collapsed, but getting to them quickly proved difficult.

First of all, he was forced to turn off [Void Zone] if he wanted to traverse the Void, which immediately exposed him to the darkness. It felt like he was being constantly cut by thousands of small knives, and his skin was slowly drying out as if sapped of its vitality.

Secondly, he found himself utterly incapable of actually making any progress even if he moved. His surroundings turned into a confusing blur as he propelled himself forward by expelling Cosmic Energy, with his relative position to the surroundings continuously changing. The experience was so nauseating, he was repeatedly forced to stop in order to fight an onset of vertigo.

Zac realized that the spatial tear had served as an anchor, infusing its surroundings with the Dao of Space. With the spatial tear gone, the normal rules didn’t apply. His eyes had become useless, with directions and common logic no longer holding any sway. It became more apparent why the Hegemons had so desperately struggled to jump back through the tears, to the point some even braved the rampant energies.

They were probably afraid of getting stuck like he was.

At the same time, it was clear that not everyone had this kind of problem. There were dozens of people flickering about, somehow moving through the area to loot one Spatial Ring or Cosmos Sack after another from the innumerable corpses. They lacked the franticness of the other cultivators, clearly considering the situation an opportunity rather than calamity.

Was it Spatial Energy? Did they have some sort of Spatial Treasures that could instill the Dao of Space into their surroundings, allowing them to move freely in the Void? Or were their Daos simply powerful enough to affect vast areas of space? Zac took out two Soul Crystals and started absorbing the energy as he increased the radius of his Dao Field.

Suddenly, he noticed something, prompting him to change course. A moment later, a body appeared in front of him as though it had teleported. Well, at least half of one. Of course, it wasn’t teleportation. Zac sensed the body’s spirituality with his Dao Field, and it was like their locations became connected through his Dao.

The moment he reached the body, Zac hurriedly activated [Void Zone], giving his body a reprieve as he checked the lower half of the fallen Hegemon for treasure. He was still as stuck as can be, so Zac figured he might as well stuff his pockets while waiting for his body to recover. Unfortunately, it looked like the warrior had carried his Spatial Tool on the hand that was missing, leaving Zac empty-handed.

Zac didn’t immediately leave, keeping his Bloodline Talent going for a while longer. Budding Void Emperor or not, the Void was clearly not a domain he could withstand at his current level. The damage wasn’t as bad as when he’d experimented in the research base Mystic Realm, but Zac doubted he would last more than a couple of hours without his nullification zone.

Luckily, the environment contained some of the force Zac could refine into Void Energy, and his [Void Heart] had been hard at work since he fled into this place. Unfortunately, the pace his Void Energy was being replaced didn’t match his consumption. Even then, Zac figured he would be able to survive around half a day if he alternated properly as he had down in the chasm.

Hopefully, that would be enough time for him to leave and for the battle outside to abate.

As if conjured by his thoughts, the Void was lit up again as hundreds of new tears appeared, each of them spewing torrential amounts of energy into the surroundings. Zac froze in place as his eyes widened with terror, but he breathed out in relief upon realizing that none of the deadly rivers were bearing down on him.

He hadn’t completely recovered from his previous spacewalk, but he still deactivated his nullification zone to spread out his Dao Field once more, hoping one of the new tears had appeared near him. Unfortunately, he didn’t sense anything, but he still set out, pushing his way in a random direction.

His only gain was finding two more bodies, one of which was a Hegemon with his Spatial Ring intact. Zac spent the next hour shuttling back and forth with increasing urgency, but while his pockets were filling up with Spatial Rings and Cosmos Sacks, he didn’t have as much luck with finding any exits.

Everyone else in the area was struggling in a similar manner, yet few were successful. If anything, there seemed to be more people being forced into the Void than leaving it.

The distances were far greater than Zac anticipated. Even after moving for so long, he hadn’t run into a single living cultivator, even if there were thousands of them scuttling about within his small section alone. For all he knew, there might be thousands of kilometers between him and the closest cultivator, or closest spatial tear for that matter.

To make matters worse, the spatial tears closed one by one as the minutes passed, and fewer and fewer new ones were carved open.

Zac couldn’t be certain, but he believed the Eternal Clan Monarch had either been killed or forced out of contention around fifteen minutes after he entered the Void. From that point on, the energy that crashed through the dimensional barriers lacked the Dao of Blood, meaning the clashes were only between the Eveningtide Asura and the Havarok Autarch.

And now, not a single tear had been opened over the past five minutes. Conversely, only the largest spatial tears remained.

No one bothered actively looking for loot any longer. Even those who moved freely had made their way to a spatial tear and snuck out, mostly ignoring the pleading gestures from the surviving cultivators left behind. Zac still flew toward any corpse he sensed in hopes their body would be floating next to one of the still-remaining tears, but so far, there was no such luck.

It was starting to become more and more apparent that his original solution was bound to fail, and he decided to try his backup plan. There was still an endless repository of unclaimed wealth left floating in the endless Void, but Zac had started feeling a sense of urgency since new tears stopped opening.

He needed to get away from this area. If the battle for ascension had ended, the old monsters outside might turn their attention toward the next order of business: punishing the person who caused so much trouble in the E-grade trial. He’d done as much as possible to avoid being exposed, but who knew what kind of means and methods Monarchs possessed.

Zac finished looting a relatively intact body of a Hegemon and stowed the body before activating a Shroud Talisman to obscure his actions. Next, he took out a large stone disk. It was five meters across and one meter deep, resembling a massive coin made of rock and embedded with hundreds of Nexus Crystals.

It was covered with inscriptions, inscriptions that should be familiar to any cultivator who had ever left their home—a teleportation array, though a somewhat modified version.

It only lacked a few easily added strokes, and Zac urgently completed them as he inserted a series of High-grade Nexus Crystals to power the array. This was a last-ditch measure he and Kenzie had come up with before he started traveling the sector in search of materials.

The second function of his escape bracelet was that it could authorize a teleportation array pretty much anywhere, with some caveats. One of those limitations was that it couldn’t be used inside another array’s sphere of influence, which was what stopped him from taking it out in the middle of the Twilight Harbor.

Another downside was that using this temporary array cost five times as much as using a normal one, but that didn’t matter to Zac. Not only did he have the fortune left by his mother, but he’d received an even greater windfall between looting Qi’Sar’s treasury and dozens of fallen warriors in the Void.

However, Zac and his sister discovered another unadvertised obstacle to using the bangle. As a teleportation array neared completion, it automatically started generating spatial fluctuations, making it impossible to store in a Spatial Ring. It had taken them some trial and error, but Kenzie ultimately created five identical platforms which were 98% finished, with just a few simple additions remaining.

From there, Zac could finish the preparations in a few minutes, far quicker than the days it would have taken to set the thing up from scratch. After that, he just needed to connect the array with his bangle, and he should be good to go. It was this lifeline that had given him some confidence he’d make it out in one piece, even if the teleportation arrays of Twilight Harbor had been turned off.

With this thing prepared, he would simply need to keep flying until he exited the harbor’s sphere of influence, perhaps hidden in a convoy of refugees, before he took this thing out and zapped back home.

Preparations finished, Zac’s eyes lit up when he saw the array light up. But, relief was quickly replaced by dismay when the flickering lights dimmed. He looked over the disk to make sure it wasn’t damaged, but there was nothing amiss. Zac took out an information crystal Kenzie had prepared, but no matter how many times he looked it over, there were no discrepancies.

The array was identical to the schematic. Was it the location? A teleportation array utilized the Void for travel, but perhaps it was impossible to actually set one up inside it, at least without Spatial Crystals to provide Spatial Energy. Zac scratched his head in search of solutions, but he couldn’t come up with anything.

He’d already deactivated [Void Zone] when starting up the array, and a few minutes later the second teleportation array fizzled out in an identical manner. Zac stowed the two arrays, filled with a sense of impending doom as he looked at the slowly dimming Void.

The streams of unbridled power were being whittled away, as were the cultivators stuck in the Void. Some desperately attacked their surroundings, displaying marvelous feats of strength. A few actually succeeded and slipped away, but most were like him. The darkness grew more oppressive by the second, almost suffocatingly so.

Zac refused to give in, and a manic gleam shimmered in his eyes as he took out one stack of offensive talisman after another, tying them together with a chaotic mix of various Attuned Crystals and energy-rich Beast Cores. Finally, he took out his last five [Void Balls], hoping to use them as a catalyst to tear a hole in space.

He couldn’t hold back, seeing as his [Raptururous Divide] had failed before. Even Hegemons found it hard to escape. He would have to go all out, and he reluctantly prepared his exhausted body one final time. He had one last chance to get out of here. He would weaken space with a chaotic bomb made from his energy-dense materials, and then seal the deal with an attack from [Arcadia’s Judgment] empowered by [Arcadian Crusade].

If even that failed, he’d have to unleash an Annihilation Sphere. He’d used his small reserve of Creation Energy to destroy the array cage around the nascent Realm Spirits, but he still retained some Oblivion in his soul. Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that, considering how bad the damage to his foundations was already. There was still some time before he reached his limit though, so Zac kept growing his unstable payload as he tried stumbling onto one of the few remaining spatial tears.

Suddenly, a weird crooning noise echoed through the Void, which was a shock considering the odd dimension had been completely silent since the spatial tear next to him closed. Zac felt an immense sense of dread, remembering the bloodthirsty Void Creatures all-too-well. He unhesitantly threw his bomb after infusing it with energy.

Space shuddered above his head as he activated [Arcadia’s Judgment]. But before space had a chance to crack and unleash the huge wooden hand, his connection to the skill was cut, prompting a sharp pain in his head like his mind had been stabbed. His vision swam from the backlash, and he desperately tried to focus his vision to try again.

But it was too late.

A shimmering sphere appeared out of nowhere, sealing him inside and blocking his path to the churning ball of destruction. A moment later it went off, turning into a terrifying inferno of clashing elements. The destruction was beyond what he’d expected, and he hurriedly activated a few defensive talismans with wide eyes.

The measure was quickly proven unnecessary though, and Zac was filled with a mix of horror and relief when the bubble that had enclosed him didn’t so much as ripple when it was swallowed by the chaotic energies. Even a few small spatial tears slammed into the barrier, but the tears broke apart in an instant.

The sphere was unbelievably durable, and fear quickly overwhelmed his relief. He was a caged animal, and he furiously swung his axe into the barrier with all the force he could muster, but it was futile. The spere was just as tough from the inside, and no matter what Dao he infused into his strikes, the result was the same.

There was no way a low-grade cultivator was responsible for something like this, and Zac urgently looked around to see what the hell was going on.

He made two quick discoveries which helped him stem the budding panic somewhat. First of all, the harmful environment of the Void was held at bay by the white shimmering bubble. Secondly, it didn’t look like he specifically had been targeted. The whole Void was suddenly littered with bubbles, tens upon tens of thousands of them.

Even the corpses had been encapsulated along with the still-living cultivators, and Zac saw how innumerable warriors struggled to break out. If the success rate of escaping the Void had been bad, then this was just abysmal. He didn’t spot a single bubble breaking, which could only mean one thing—this had to be the work of a Monarch, and not a low-grade one by the looks of it.

Things took a turn for the worse as Zac felt a wave of weakness, and he spotted a few runes that had appeared on the outside of the sphere. His prison was draining him, just like how Yod’s array had almost managed to kill Catheya before. Zac threw out a small hill of crystals to counteract the drain, but it was futile.

It was almost like the sphere had created a [Void Zone] to rival his own, and nothing he tried worked. Just what was going on? His first thought was that some of the powerhouses outside had taken pity on them and decided to enter the Void and fish everyone out, no doubt expecting something in return.

There was no way it was a purely benevolent act considering the restrictive array, after all. Zac even considered swallowing his main Spatial Ring in case of being demanded an exorbitant ransom, but those thoughts flew out of his mind as a huge vortex in the Void opened up.

It wasn’t a Monarch who emerged through the mysterious spatial gate. Neither was it one of the grotesque-looking Void Beasts. In fact, Zac had never seen or read any missives on the kind of creature that effortlessly captured so many warriors. From its appearance and size, only one description seemed apt.

A monstrous fish, best described as a Leviathan, had appeared.

26

DOUBTS AND SCHEMES

The darkness might only have lasted for an instant, or it might have gone on for a year, but a glimmer of light finally broke the gloom as Catheya woke up to the sound of shattering ice. All around her, a sealed dome of ice broke apart as shimmering runes dissipated, exposing her and her two followers to the familiar surroundings of her master’s Cosmic Vessel.

“Good morning,” a familiar voice said, and Catheya felt her heart once more freeze over as she turned her eyes toward the source.

“Master,” Catheya hesitantly said as she struggled to get her mind to focus. She needed all her mental faculties if she wanted to weather this calamity. “What happened?”

“Two weeks have passed since I was forced to seal you. I had to use Myriad Ice since you were so far away from me,” Va Tapek smiled as he slowly walked into the hall. “I had to thaw you three slowly as to avoid any damage.”

“And the Twilight Harbor?” Catheya asked, looking around.

“Gone. It couldn’t withstand Alvod Jondir’s ascension,” Va Tapek sighed.

So, the Eveningtide Asura actually succeeded. She was shocked, remembering the chaotic scene just before she fell unconscious. Even an Autarch had tried to stop him, yet he somehow pulled through? Just what kind of foundations did he have to succeed in the face of such adversity.

However, the more pressing issue was that one of Alvod Jondir’s allies stood right in front of her. She was just an ant compared to her master, but fury still thawed the chill that still lingered in her body. “The Sharva’Zi Clan has been your home for eons, so why—”

“Now, don’t go saying such hurtful things, girl,” a snort cut her off, but Catheya’s eyes widened as a flood of relief filled her. Her dad was here, which meant she was safe.

Wait, her dad was here?

“Father?” Catheya turned just in time to see her father’s lean silhouette appear next to Va Tapek from a swirl of poison.

“Does Mr. Tapek seem like someone who would betray the clan for a Dreamer? I’ve taught you to think deeper,” Ruz Sharva’Zi sighed as he waved his hand, prompting Catheya to float over. “Now, let me look at you.”

Catheya had a million questions threatening to burst out of her head, but she forcibly stilled herself as she let her father scan her cultivation. Meanwhile, her two followers quickly made their exit after bowing in the direction of her father.

“You’ve set the foundations for a second branch? And your affinities have increased. Not bad. Seems you’ve worked hard these past years,” Ruz said, a rare smile spreading across his face. “Did you have fun in the Twilight Ocean?”

“What fun?” Catheya huffed, slowly adapting to the unexpected turn of events. “Things grew way out of control. I’m lucky to be standing here.”

“We had confidence in you. These kinds of experiences are required to reach greater heights. You can’t always hide in Mr. Tapek’s shadow and expect great results,” Ruz shrugged.

“I know, Dad,” Catheya sighed. “Now, can you please tell me what’s going on? I saw the harbor before I was sealed. Our whole worlddisk should be destroyed, our commercial lines ruined.”

“Do you really think we didn’t have an idea of what was about to happen in the Twilight Harbor?” Ruz said with a raised brow. “The bloodsuckers heard whispers about it in the Eternal Halls, but we were oblivious?”

“Then why?” Catheya said with a frown. “Our foundation, millions of years of effort.”

“Obviously, we got something much greater in return,” Ruz shrugged. “Think, child. Where were the Draugr during this mess?”

“That’s…” Catheya muttered with hesitation.

This was something she had wondered about over the past year. Why hadn’t the Umbri’Zi thrown their hat in the ring? Why was an opportunity in Draugr Territory left for the Eidolon and Eternal Clan? They ultimately failed from the sounds of it, but it wasn’t their opportunity to seize from the beginning.

“Mr. Tapek brought news of Alvod Jondir’s plan to me over five millennia ago, long before you were even born. Since then, the elders have planned for this event. First of all, we didn’t lose much. We have been covertly siphoning everything of value from Twilight Harbor for decades. We only lost some low-grade material that is entirely replaceable,” Ruz said.

“Master?” Catheya asked with confusion. “How… How do you know the Eveningtide Asura?”

“We met in the Havarok Empire,” Va Tapek smiled. “We became allies of necessity for a short while. Truthfully, I thought him dead for a long time, until he sent word to me a few thousand years ago. He needed my help.”

Catheya’s eyebrows scrunched up slightly, which made Va Tapek laugh. “Child, you’ll make me sad if you look at me with such consternation. You are correct. I am the one who told your clan about my old allies’ plans. I was also the one who helped spread the news to Hive Ouro, the Noz’Valadir, and even the Havarok Empire. But that was exactly what Alvod Jondir asked of me.”

“What?” Catheya blurted.

“Alvod knew he was missing two things. Daoguards to ward off the meddling of the Twilight Harbor Council while he was at a critical point of his preparations, and the ability to perfect his path without a breakthrough. Leaking the news would solve both those issues. The Divine Monarchs of the Undead Empire needed to let Alvod collapse the Twilight Ocean before they could seize the opportunity, so they became highly motivated guardians for him to complete a few critical steps,” Va Tapek explained.

“As for the second part, he managed to find his answer when pressured from every direction, finally perfecting his Dao and empowering it to the point it could withstand Heaven’s wrath. Of course, he barely managed to squeak by with an unconventional method like this, becoming a One-Step Autarch with shaky foundations. But his accomplishment will be remembered for tens of millions of years,” the Revenant mage continued.

“But that means we sold out our people? Won’t the empire sanction us?” Catheya asked with worry.

“How is it a breach to tell our brethren of an opportunity of Autarchy?” Ruz countered with a calm face. “The opportunity was real, though we failed to mention how tightly bound the Daos of Life and Death were interlinked at the heart of the Twilight Ocean. That made it far more difficult for Nizu Noz’Valadir and Tua Ouro to connect to the Heavenly Dao than they expected. But if things played out differently, they might have succeeded.

“Unfortunately for them, providence wasn’t on their side that day, with Nizu falling and Tuo being crippled. But the fact that promising Divine Monarchs belonging to hostile camps got themselves in trouble, how is that our fault? And if some threatened middle-grade families deem fit to send us a few gifts to celebrate how things panned out, we’d obviously be amenable to that.”

“Most importantly, this benefited the Umbri’Zi family,” Va Tapek added.

“But they weren’t even here,” Catheya said with confusion.

“Exactly. They were somewhere else. At the Tarramak Vault, in fact,” Ruz smiled.

“What!” Catheya almost screamed. “Don’t tell me they seized it?”

“Alas, no,” Ruz said. “Holding that place is too costly, not worth the effort. But destabilizing it, especially after it was prematurely forced open…”

“The Havarok Empire has been locked out of over twelve sectors,” Catheya said, the situation finally dawning on her.

“The Sixth Protector of the Havarok Empire forcing his way here in his full form was enough to destabilize the gate. The moment he fled back in defeat, the Umbri’Zi managed to destabilize their pathways even further. War is already raging across the stars,” her father nodded. “By the time the Havarok Dynasty manages to reconnect to the frontier, we will already have purified half of them. Their backers can’t fault the Undead Empire on this method, and one of the conquered sectors… is ours.”

“We’ll be able to form a province!” Catheya’s eyes gleamed.

Losing a profitable business in the Twilight Harbor was a big hit, but what was that compared to the revenue of a whole sector? Certainly, they would have to pay a tax to the Umbri’Zi family, but they both had the bloodline of Zi. The Sharva’Zi had always been extremely well treated in their dealings in the frontier thanks to that link.

“But why didn’t you tell me anything?” Catheya huffed. “Am I really your daughter?”

“We couldn’t risk our plans leaking. With the Eidolon involved, we couldn’t let juniors hold any critical information,” Va Tapek said with a smile. “What if you were captured inside the Mystic Realm, and they dragged the truth out of your mind? This plan was extremely risky, with a high chance for failure.”

“Old men and your secrets,” Catheya glared.

“Well, it all worked out fine, didn’t it?” Ruz shrugged. “Truthfully, things played out more beautifully than we could ever have dreamed. Who would have thought the Sixth Protector would arrive with such fervor? We really have your little friend to thank. But he’s also made the situation a bit complicated.”

“My friend?” Catheya asked with confusion. “What’s wrong?”

“He killed the scions of both the Eidolon and the Eternal Clan before he ripped the very fabric of the Mystic Realm asunder. He even crippled the Realm Spirit during his rampage from what we’ve gathered. He essentially removed all the roadblocks for Alvod’s Ascent, forcing the Sixth Protector to come in person instead of conjuring an avatar or possessing a descendant,” Va Tapek explained.

“And he also dragged us and the Umbri’Zi into the mix. You were mostly sent in there to provide you with experience, yet one of your party members, another Draugr, became the focal point of the trial. He even killed two scions of the empire, opening us up for a broader line of questioning,” Ruz sighed. “Our plan would only truly work if we had plausible deniability.”

“That crazy witch Uona attacked him first. She was running rampant here in the frontier, doing whatever she wanted. She almost killed me as well and put a bounty on me!” Catheya frowned. “Arcaz didn’t even want to go to the City of Ancients, but Uona forced his hand. She only has herself to blame.”

“Still, someone from the empire will need to speak to us, to you in particular, about what transpired inside. We need to find a strategy to protect our family from being sanctioned,” Ruz continued, clearly not caring about the details of the events inside. “Our situation is precarious enough as it is.”

Catheya understood his reasoning. For her father, who was in the right or wrong among the junior generation, didn’t matter. What mattered were the political implications and how they could affect the clan. “You’re not suggesting we’re supposed to cook up some lie and push the blame on Arcaz, right?”

“Well, we still haven’t learned who the empire will send. Our response highly depends on what camp the ambassador belongs to,” Ruz sighed. “The Umbri’Zi is also sending a delegate. We’ll hopefully be able to figure out a path with their help.”

“I am already here,” a pealing laugh echoed through the vessel, and only then did Catheya realize another Draugr right next to them, like she’d always been there.

“Mistress Umbri’Zi,” Ruz exclaimed with shock, and both he and Va hurriedly bowed.

Catheya curtsied as well, her heart rapidly beating as she understood the implications of how her father acted. The Umbri’Zi was a far more powerful clan than Sharva’Zi, but there was no need for such deference between Monarchs. That could only mean one thing—the Umbri’Zi had sent the avatar of one of their Autarchs to look into the situation.

Her heart tightened as she gazed upon the woman. This had all ballooned far beyond her expectations. She had felt somewhat certain that her plan would work, but that was before she knew of the truth behind the curtains. She should have known Arcaz Black would somehow become the unwitting lynchpin in a massive political plot.

Because why wouldn’t he?

“No need for formalities. We’re of the same branch,” the woman said as her eyes turned to Catheya. “How marvelous. You are almost a spitting image of little Be’Zi, but you have a warmth she always lacked. I was under the impression she succumbed some time ago, yet I read a conflicting report on my way here… Is that stubborn little girl still alive?”

Catheya’s eyes widened even further since she finally realized who this was. This was not one of the outer elders or lesser Autarchs of the Umbri’Zi. This was the Matriarch herself, Reyna Umbri’Zi, someone who was at least a Fifth-Step Autarch. An ancient being who had lived for at least twenty million years, partly thanks to her mastery over the Dao of Time. A wave of her hand and the Sharva’Zi would be annihilated.

“Don’t over-think things, child. The fact I am here is a good thing,” Reyna said. “The Ambassador will arrive in three days. Before then, I have been sent to get to the bottom of a few things.”

“You’ve been sent…?” Catheya muttered with incredulity while the brows of her father furrowed in consternation.

Who could send a Fifth-Step Autarch on an errand, except those two factions?

“That is beside the point,” Reyna said. “Now, answer my question.”

“Ancestor Be’Zi Sharva’Zi is alive, according to Arcaz Black,” Catheya said, not daring to lie in front of this ancestor. She was an arch-duke of the empire and someone who could decide the fate of not only Arcaz, but also her clan. “Arcaz Black has been in contact with her. She… sent a message that she was unable to return at the moment.”

“So, she’s alive,” Reyna sighed as a scene appeared in front of them, a scene Catheya hadn’t seen before.

However, she knew the place. The City of Ancients. Catheya looked on with wide eyes, and it felt like she was seeing her travel companion for the first time. Terrifying markings covered his face, and chaotic swirls of unbridled power coursed around him. He didn’t seem like a warrior, but a force of nature, a calamity that couldn’t be quelled.

His silver gaze looked down upon a bedraggled Uona like an emperor meting out judgment, and a moment later, Heavenly Lightning slammed down on the vampire, extinguishing her body and soul. Was this how Arcaz ended the two powerhouses? How was something like this possible?

“Be’Zi is alive, and her apparent disciple happened to unleash hollow Chaos. It looks like she refused to give up on that unclimbable peak. Well, she was always a stubborn one, and it seems to be working for her,” Reyna continued before she waved her sleeve, prompting the scene to disappear.

Catheya breathed out in relief, realizing that Reyna didn’t care that their ancestor had broken the commandments of the empire to pursue the Path of Oblivion. Was it because of a familiar sentiment or was it possible that the Path of Oblivion didn’t clash with the Heart of the Empire?

“He is an odd one,” Reyna muttered, turning to Va Tapek. “I gather you scanned him. Is it true he lacks the mark?”

“He is truly unattached,” Va Tapek confirmed with a small bow. “I had never heard of a member of the divine race not attached, which was why I sent back a report.”

“It was that report that resulted in me having to visit this Heaven-forgotten corner of the Multiverse,” Reyna smiled before she turned to Catheya. “Child, tell me what you know of this young man. It is more important than you know.”

“I…” Catheya hesitated for a few seconds, her eyes flickering between her father and the ancient matriarch of the Umbri’Zi family.

“You care for him,” Reyna slowly said with a smile, and a small box appeared in her hand. “Don’t worry, I mean him no harm. In fact, here.”

“This is?” Catheya asked with confusion as she took the box, only opening it when she saw the nod from the old Autarch. “Perennial Vastness!”

“That old thing still hasn’t given up, still biding his time in that mysterious realm,” Reyna said. “I was curious, so I had a talk with the newly ascended Autarch. A remarkable young man. It’s a shame he declined our offer to be awakened, he would have made an impressive Outer Elder. In either case, Alvod Jondir left this behind for Arcaz Black, with the message that while the mission was a failure, the end result was acceptable. This is his reward.”

Catheya’s eyes were wide as she looked down at the token. This thing was beyond precious and something even scions of the empire would want. For a mortal like Arcaz, it might be his best path of forming a proper core.

“Of course, you can use it yourself if you so desire,” Reyna snickered as she looked at Catheya teasingly. “I don’t care either way.”

“No, I will deliver it to him,” Catheya hurriedly said. “More importantly, I bring a message from Arcaz Black to the empire.”

“To the empire?” Reyna said with a raised brow. “Big words from a child. Then again, he clearly has wild ambitions. Tell me, what did he want you to convey?”

Catheya took a deep breath before she explained Arcaz’s unique situation. She tried to paint him and his weird abilities in as positive a light as she could, of how he could benefit the Undead Empire. Of course, she failed to mention what a lightning-rod he was, and the chaos his human identity had already caused back in the Zecia Sector.

“No matter what his actions might look like, he bears no ill will against the Undead Empire. However, he is worried that he would become an experiment to some Monarch if his situation became known, which is why he has refrained from coming home until now,” Catheya said.

“A being of both Life and Death? He’s an Edgewalker, then? How interesting,” Reyna said, looking a bit surprised for the first time since appearing out of nowhere. “It’s not very often one of these aberrations show up, and I think it’s only the second time the undead half were Draugr. I think I understand now why he reached out to me.”

The response was absolutely not what Catheya anticipated, and she struggled to understand what was going on. Edgewalker? Catheya had never heard of the concept, and neither had her master by the looks of it. In fact, he looked extremely surprised at the information, which was honestly no surprise, considering he’d scanned Arcaz before.

But all that was pushed away when she heard Reyna’s last statement. She had already considered this when hearing that the Umbri’Zi Matriarch had been sent here by someone.

Could it possibly be one of the two Abyssal Lords who was behind this?

27

THE FINAL TWILIGHT

The fact that one of the two A-grade leaders of the Draugr race might have taken an interest in something like an E-grade cultivator was almost incomprehensible. People at their level didn’t even care whether Monarchs lived or died, and generations of E-grade cultivators would live and die in a single cultivation session of theirs.

At the same time, Catheya knew what she could and couldn’t ask about, so she instead focused on the other part Reyna divulged.

“Edgewalkers? Something like this has happened before?” Catheya asked.

She felt a wave of regret upon remembering how confidently she assured Arcaz about how this plan of hers would work. But it turned out she was talking out of turn, lacking critical information. She had never heard of such a marvelous thing, which was why she was so adamant that Arcaz could become a high-value member of the empire.

But if they were common, his value would immediately plummet, which meant his safety was no longer guaranteed.

“The Multiverse is beyond ancient. What hasn’t happened before?” Reyna smiled. “We could even create them if we wanted. Unfortunately, they all have a fundamental weakness no matter if they were created artificially or if they were born from some cosmic hiccup.”

“A weakness?” Catheya said with worry.

“Life-Death Edgewalkers cannot form a Cultivator’s Core because of their contradictory nature,” Reyna sighed. “If they could, they would have become strategic resources of our empire. Agents who could walk completely unfettered in the land of the living? But now, they are simply natural oddities, dayflies with a small window of glory.”

Catheya blanched when she heard of Arcaz’s fate. Was this the work of the Law of Balance? He was shining too brightly, like a candle burning from both ends. It felt extremely unfair that the path of someone so miraculous as that would be cut short at the measly E-grade. But if not even someone like Reyna knew of a solution, odds were that there wasn’t one.

At least there was one piece of good news that came with this. “So, no one would want to kill him for research, at least?”

“Research?” Reyna snorted. “What’s there to research? If it was possible to actually nurture beings who could keep both their races and pass on that ability, we would have long figured it out. Some things are simply outside of the Heavenly Law. However, it is still of paramount importance we bring him in.”

“May I ask why?” Catheya hesitantly asked.

“Do you know how long it has been since we encountered an unattached Draugr?” Reyna asked.

“I—” Catheya stuttered, not following the shift in topic.

“Three-hundred-and-eighty-four million years ago, a small settlement in a Mystic Realm,” Ruz said, seemingly understanding something. “Long-lost tribe members of the Zul. Today, the Zul have four Ancestral Nodes instead of three.”

“Just so,” Reyna said. “The Children of Draug lost much in the Dark Ages. Whole bloodlines surrendered to the Void. We managed to reclaim some of what we lost by retracing our steps after the empire was founded, but we are still not complete. Too much time has passed, and the odds of finding any more of our brethren are growing bleaker every day. Yet here he is, Arcaz Black. A fresh infusion not seen in eons.

“We cannot let the other races, especially the Eidolon, learn of this. Since the sacrifice of moving the Ancestral Lake, we have been considered the weakest race. But we have slowly accumulated and recovered for so long. An addition to our bloodline can have cascading effects within a few million years, just like the branch of Zul had back then. If Arcaz Black carries genes we're lacking, or is even part of the missing line… It can be revolutionizing.”

“What would you have us do?” Ruz said with a serious frown. “Clan Sharva’Zi will do everything in our power to help with this mission.”

“First of all, these matters don’t leave this room. If one of the other factions learns of this, they might hunt him down to prevent our race from gaining this asset,” Reyna said. “Secondly, Arcaz Black’s true identity is Arcaz Umbri’Zi going forward, a lineal Heaven’s Chosen nurtured in secret by my clan.

“We will take the blame on this one, and say he has been sent to a sealed world to reflect on his actions and recover from the backlash of using the Remnant of Oblivion. Luckily, we have records of all three sides meddling with that cursed thing, so it shouldn’t be too big a problem shifting the blame. I’m sure those ancient aberrations don’t mind,” Reyna smiled.

Catheya only gaped in response. That man was simply not bound by convention. She hoped she would be able to secure Arcaz a decent position through his unique abilities, but he’d somehow subverted her expectations and become a scion at the absolute top of the food chain, far surpassing even her standing.

“We’ll say we sent Arcaz Umbri’Zi to hasten the collapse of the Mystic Realm and force the Dreamer Autarch to make a move, but he went too far in his zeal to accomplish his mission. Just as that young bloodling did, by all accounts. That should be enough,” Reyna said. “Any questions?”

“No complaints,” Ruz nodded, though Catheya could see he wasn’t too happy with the turn of events.

She could understand why. Clan Sharva’Zi had been the sole link between Arcaz Black and the Undead Empire, and now it turned out he might carry a bloodline so valuable that the Abyssal Shores dispatched the Avatar of a Five-Step Autarch. Both the connection between herself and Arcaz, and his connection with her ancestor, firmly tied their wagons together for good or bad.

But now, Reyna Umbri’Zi had snatched him, along with the potential benefits he could bring, in one fell swoop.

“Good. Now, where is this little troublemaker?” Reyna asked.

“I’m sorry, we had no idea he was an Edgewalker when the realm collapsed. We looked for Arcaz Black, but not his Dreamer counterpart,” Ruz sighed. “We truly have no idea what happened to him. He might have slipped away, but I am afraid something else might have happened that might prove a problem.”

“There is no way he fell here,” Catheya said with conviction.

“He is alive,” Reyna nodded in agreement. “He has managed to hide his tracks surprisingly well, but we would know if he had fallen.”

“It is something else,” Ruz sighed with a shake of his head. “Something odd took place during the ascension, but it went unnoticed due to the chaos. After things calmed down, we tried to create a tally of survivors and harvest any high-potential bodies. But we stumbled upon a problem. A huge number of Dreamers, undead warriors, and even corpses are missing. Millions, altogether.”

“Missing?” Reyna frowned.

“Innumerable warriors were sucked into the Void, yet we could scarcely find a single one when forcing open a path. We’ve also received reports of small spatial tunnels opening, sucking in unwitting warriors. At first, we thought it was simply space crumbling from the ascension, but after seeing the Void…”

“You think they’ve been abducted?” Reyna frowned and closed her eyes.

No one in the room dared interrupt whatever the ancient Autarch was doing until Reyna opened her eyes ten minutes later. “It is barely discernible, but there are some remnant spatial fluctuations in the Void. I cannot place the energy signature though. It might be the work of a Spatial Autarch or it might be some aberrant energy wave rippling through the Void.”

Ruz and Va Tapek looked into each other’s eyes, unable to come up with any helpful suggestions.

“I will send word back home to see if any of our archivists recognize what this is,” Reyna sighed before she turned toward Catheya. “Meanwhile, we’ll also follow the assumption that he made it out as he planned. It is of paramount importance that we find him quickly. Where do you think he would go in this situation? We must ensure he stays Draugr.”

“I’m sorry?” Catheya said with confusion. “I think he can change races as he wishes?”

“Not like that, child,” Reyna snorted. “As I said, Life and Death cannot both be the basis of a Cultivator’s Core. It would lead toward Chaos, the peak that completely refused being categorized by the Apostate of Order. The fundamental stages of cultivation in this era are simply not suited for such a thing, no matter if you’re within the System’s purview or not.

“Something has to be sacrificed to move forward,” the Autarch continued. “Life-Death Edgewalkers do have one way to break through to Hegemony. They can discard one of their identities and become a singular whole, crippling part of themselves to continue on the road of cultivation. If Arcaz Black would discard one of his facets, which one do you think it would be?”

Catheya hesitated, not immediately providing an answer even with her father wordlessly urging her on. Finally, she made a decision.

“Arcaz Black is a progenitor, the leader of a planet that will stay shrouded until he has reached Hegemony,” Catheya said. “He isn’t beholden to any faction, and he has a seemingly endless source of wealth to come and go as he pleases. He is suspicious to the point of paranoia, and if some random stranger tries to tell him what to do, he is almost guaranteed to throw a wrench in those plans.

“You shouldn’t underestimate his ability to cause chaos. He singlehandedly managed to change the fate of a whole sector while still in the F-grade, and you saw how he managed to influence events here.”

“That was him!” Va Tapek exclaimed with shock, drawing confused looks from the other two.

Va Tapek quickly explained what happened in the Zecia Sector, of the Stele of Conflict and the quarantine that almost prevented him from leaving.

“To think he has such an impact on fate. Clearly, the System has honed in on him for some reason. Just where did this child sprout from?” Reyna frowned, but soon relaxed, a smile spreading across her face as she looked at Catheya. “Having said so much, I guess you have a proposition for us, no? Looking at you reminds me of your little ancestor, so I might be amenable to accept as long as it is within reason.”

“I don’t know where he is right now, but I’m willing to head back to Zecia and talk with him about this situation. I should be able to get a message through to him one way or another. That way, I can make sure he doesn’t make any hasty decisions, and someone like me shouldn’t raise any flags among our enemies,” Catheya said. “But I do want something in return.”

She could feel it. Arcaz was like a whirlwind of fate, one that was constantly advancing. She didn’t know exactly where he was headed, but she knew she wanted to go along. Catheya also knew she wouldn’t do as things stood. Arcaz Black had been weaker than her when they entered the Twilight Ocean, but he shot right past her in two short years.

If she wanted to travel alongside that man, to experience the true marvel of the Multiverse, she needed something beyond a simple opportunity or treasure. Her momentum needed a fundamental boost, her foundations needed to be remolded. Otherwise, she would just become an impediment to his path, an empty vase who couldn’t bring anything useful to the table.

This was her chance to catch up, to become a travel companion who had the strength to withstand the winds of fate that surrounded Arcaz Black. If she didn’t seize it, she sensed he would be so far beyond her the next time they met, that he might as well be from her father’s generation.

For all she knew, he was already off somewhere creating more chaos and making progress on his cultivation.

* * *

Zac was filled with a sense of helplessness as he looked at the gargantuan, far-off creature. Over two weeks had passed since being trapped in this infernal bubble, but he still wasn’t any clearer on the situation. Why had this huge thing captured him and all the others? And where was it taking them?

He desperately wanted to escape, yet he didn’t dare make a move. The Leviathan-looking beast had shown exactly what it did with those who rebelled. Zac still vividly remembered the scene.

The appearance of a creature that would dwarf even the enormous snake in the Twilight Chasm obviously hadn’t gone unnoticed. Scale and sizes were hard to grasp in the Void, but the Leviathan had to be tens of thousands of meters long. A bit like an alien fish, it had gills glowing in green and white and at least ten sets of eyes that emitted extremely powerful spatial fluctuations.

There was also a fin on its back large enough to shroud the sky, though its tail more resembled an octopus’. Thousands of thick, fleshy tentacles stretched toward the depths of the Void, each one emitting the same spatial fluctuations as its eyes. It was clearly a beast that leaned heavily on the Dao of Space, which explained why it had so effortlessly appeared in front of them.

At the same time, Zac was somewhat certain it wasn’t a Void Beast. First of all, it looked nothing like the grotesque Void Beasts he’d encountered thus far. But more importantly, its aura was completely different. It emitted the primal aura of a high-grade beast, suffused with powerful spatial fluctuations.

Furthermore, it didn’t seem to have much love for Void Beasts.

Four times over the past two weeks it had stopped or made detours, with the sole purpose of ripping a couple of unlucky Void Beasts to shreds. The longest hunt took them through five dimensions and lasted a whole day, yet it didn’t eat or harvest any parts. It only unleashed terrifying waves of spatial turbulence at them, leaving mangled scraps behind before moving on.

Being the target of a mysterious mythological beast had unsurprisingly put the other caged cultivators on edge, and some of the bubbles had started to shudder as their captives held nothing back in a desperate attempt to escape. The Leviathan’s solution to quelling the rebellion was simple—it ate the spheres that emitted strong fluctuations.

Seeing the huge beast devouring over a hundred cultivators, many of which were emitting more powerful auras than himself, had eliminated Zac’s thoughts of escape. He still had the Oblivion Energy, but even if he managed to break open the impossibly sturdy bubble, then what? He would be stuck in the Void, unable to leave and without any means to break free. The Leviathan would merely recapture him or gobble him up.

He reluctantly decided to wait for a better opportunity. Thankfully, the beast didn’t seem interested in actually eating anyone else, and it soon turned around and reentered the vortex it created. Zac had been elated for roughly five seconds until he found his prison following suit. A moment later, he had found himself part of a bobbing river of shimmering bubbles coursing through an endless series of dimensions.

The Leviathan was unhindered by space or any dimensional barriers, effortlessly opening one portal after another, scuttling through space with even greater ease than any Cosmic Vessel Zac had heard of. Sometimes, Zac found himself looking out at unfamiliar stars and galaxies, but usually, his view had been the endless darkness of the Void. All the while, the string of captives had been dragged along.

Zac’s nerves had been extremely taut the first hours, but the Leviathan never attacked any more of the captives after the first warning. Even now, every single prisoner was completely unscathed, if you discounted the mental torture of not having any idea of what was going on. Of course, the draining array was still active, though it only kept him at an extremely weakened state.

An even greater torture for Zac was the fact that there was a spatial lock inside the prison, one that was so comprehensive, he couldn’t even peek inside the pile of Spatial Rings he’d looted. For all he knew, he might be sitting on a vast fortune or perhaps even some odd treasure that could get him out of this place. But the items inside the Spatial Treasures might as well be on the other side of the universe.

He was still able to open his Status Screen though, and he smiled as he once more looked at the new Limited Title.

[The Final Twilight: Place first during the final Twilight Ascent. Reward: All Attributes +10%, Strength +5%. Effect of Attributes +10%.]

28

LEVIATHAN

The final Twilight Ascent had been far more dangerous than the previous ones, especially considering the fallout. Unfortunately, that hadn’t been enough for the System to deem it necessary to award Zac another Limited Title slot or title permanence. But it had at least adjusted the reward.

Zac had seen historical examples of Status Screens in his missives, and the first position in the E-grade Twilight Ascent would generally provide between 6% and 10% attributes, along with a maximum of 8% effectiveness. Generally, the slaughter-based trials provided the highest rewards, which wasn’t a surprise considering the System’s predilection for carnage.

His special version far surpassed the historical records, even if it technically was a Dao-based trail, and it was way better compared to the titles he’d gathered so far. Seeing the massive boost the new title provided, Zac doubted he would be able to find anything better in the short run.

Limited Titles would get better and better for every grade, eventually far outstripping the normal ones. Even then, the Limited Titles you could gain in the D-grade rarely reached a boost of 15% to any attributes from what Zac had heard. So it was an extremely welcome addition, and Zac once more opened his Status Screen, partly out of boredom.

Name: Zachary Atwood

Level: 123

Class: [E-Epic] Edge of Arcadia

Race: [D] Human – Void Emperor (Corrupted)

Alignment: [Earth] Port Atwood – Planetary Lord

Titles: […] Apex Progenitor, Pathstrider, Runebinder, Runic Erudition, Grand Fate

Limited Titles: Tower of Eternity Sector All-Star – 14th, Equanimity, Heart of Fire, Big Axe Gladiator, The Final Twilight

Dao: Branch of the War Axe – Early, Fragment of the Coffin – Peak, Fragment of the Bodhi – Peak

Core: [E] Duplicity

Strength: 12709 [Increase: 123%. Efficiency: 287%]

Dexterity: 5097 [Increase: 88%. Efficiency: 206%]

Endurance: 8740 [Increase: 116,5%. Efficiency: 275%]

Vitality: 7256 [Increase: 104,5%. Efficiency: 262%]

Intelligence: 2035 [Increase: 82%. Efficiency: 206%]

Wisdom: 4215 [Increase: 89%. Efficiency: 216%]

Luck: 540 [Increase: 106%. Efficiency: 229%]

Free Points: 0

Nexus Coins: [D] 933,662

No title permanence meant The Final Twilight-title had replaced the one called Weight of Sin, which was the aggressively mediocre title he received upon climbing the Memorysteel Mountain. The long downtime had also allowed him to fill out his three recently opened nodes using the leftover kill energy from Uona along with some crystals.

He was lucky to have taken out a small hill of Supreme Nexus Crystals just before the bubble’s arrays sealed his skill fractals and Spatial Rings. They didn’t help against the constant drain on his energy reserves that kept him weakened, but as long as he pushed the energy he absorbed straight into his nodes, the siphoning array didn’t manage to snatch it all. That way, he managed to gain the three missing levels on his human side, where he had put the free attributes into Dexterity, as usual.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t use the energy from the crystals for much else. He had surreptitiously tried activating [Surging Vitality] with Void Energy to recover his wounds. It had worked, but the bubble started vibrating slightly in response, prompting Zac to stop before the warden noticed.

Being unable to activate his healing skill didn’t matter all that much though. Most of the damage to his body was to his foundations and nodes, which wasn’t something [Surging Vitality] could help with. His improvements on that side were slow, but he was definitely in far better shape compared to when getting captured.

His nodes didn’t feel like they were teetering on the brink of collapse any longer, though it would probably take another month or two of rest before they were back in peak condition. The cracks from conjuring another Glimpse of Chaos would most likely take even longer to recuperate from, but the event hadn’t saddled any worrisome lasting changes from the looks of it. While it wasn’t great, it would take most people years to recover from a situation like his. If not for his weird constitution, he would perhaps be permanently crippled.

The pathways on his shoulders had been widened a bit, and a couple of new engravings had formed, giving them a stronger aura of Creation and Oblivion. It was like every time he conjured a Chaos Pattern, [Cyclic Strike] was somewhat altered in a direction better suited for its new purpose. Zac even looked forward to seeing what it would turn into after getting anointed five times.

Perhaps he would freely be able to infuse his skills with the power of the Remnants by that point, allowing them to reach the same terrifying levels of force as when he fought in the Twilight Ocean. As for the Remnants, they hadn’t woken up at all since getting shoved into the refurbished fractal prison.

The fractal had already begun draining the Remnants again in an ironic mirroring of his own situation. Just as Zac had hoped, the stream of purified energy was greater now compared to before, with more energy enforcing both his soul and his constitution. This proved his idea worked, that each set of Remnants was like a multiplier to his cultivation speed for his Soul Strengthening Method and improving his bloodline.

The risks would obviously increase with each set he gathered, but Zac’s soul had made tremendous improvements since getting stuck with the first splinter. He didn’t sense any instability in his mental state at all, though he knew the effect of the Remnants was extremely hard to catch.

In other good news, the quest that Alvod Jondir pushed upon him when they met in the Twilight Chasm had simply disappeared around a week after he was whisked away on the journey. From his prison, it was impossible to tell what that meant. His best guess was that Twilight Harbor had finally collapsed, losing its status as a sanctioned capital, and prompting all open quests to close.

Other possibilities were the death of the Eveningtide Asura or him simply dissolving the quest. In either case, it was one less thing to worry about, though Zac couldn’t help but wonder if it wasn’t preferable if he was caught by Alvod rather than this terrifying beast. After all, things had seemingly turned out pretty well for the Asura, and Zac had inadvertently helped with his plans quite a bit.

Zac shook his head before closing his Status Screen, once more resting his back against the cage as he gazed upon the vast darkness around him. If not for his capture, he would probably be home by now. Yet he found himself here, unable to help his people at all. He hadn’t gained any screens of the Incursion’s status either, leaving him completely in the dark of how they fared.

He would need to find a way to save himself before he could save his people.

His attributes had skyrocketed since traveling to the Twilight Harbor, to the point his Effective Attributes had pretty much tripled. He remembered he just barely passed 4,000 Strength around the time Leandra returned to Earth. Now he had over 12,000, while his Efficiency had increased as well.

Add to that the less quantifiable improvements, such as the destructiveness of his evolved Daos, his upgraded weapon, his evolved skills, and his further awakened bloodline, and you could almost say he had been reborn in the Twilight Harbor. He was even confident he would be able to take on ten copies of his previous self without breaking a sweat.

But what did that matter to the enormous beast dragging him to some unknown place? This thing considered Hegemons to be tasty snacks. Zac doubted an Annihilation Sphere right in its head would manage to harm it.

The days passed and Zac started to wonder if he’d ever get out of this place. But finally, there was a change. The Leviathan emitted the powerful spatial ripples that were the telltale sign that it was about to enter another dimension. That alone wasn’t surprising, but when his prison passed through the vortex, his eyes widened.

One Leviathan had turned into three, each one identical to the other two. At the same time, the number of bubble prisons almost doubled, and Zac looked upon the scene with shock. He still hadn’t found any helpful clues, but he mentally started to prepare himself for one final struggle.

No matter what was going on, the fact that these monsters had started to gather up possibly meant they were closing in on their destination. Of course, there wasn’t much to prepare. He had hurriedly stowed away his axe the moment he decided to not escape, fearful that being armed would incur the wrath of the Leviathan.

Meanwhile, [Love’s Bond] had turned unresponsive since he fed it the mysterious egg. He would perhaps be able to force it into its shield form, but he would rather not unless absolutely necessary. Soon enough, the three Leviathan’s opened a huge gate and entered together, and Zac’s heart trembled as he felt the tremendous waves of Spatial Dao on the other side.

This was it.

When his bubble passed through, a burst of radiance forced Zac to cover his eyes, and he believed they’d entered in a proper dimension this time around. However, any thoughts on their location were thrown to the back of his mind as he saw what the river of bubbles was flying toward.

He had been naïve. Those little worms that dragged him here weren’t fit to be called Leviathans. The thing in front of him was a true Leviathan. It almost felt like his mind was breaking from estimating just how large this beast was. One thing was for sure—it wasn’t just the size of a planet like Earth, it even dwarfed some of the continental plates that made the Twilight Harbor.

It looked quite similar to the space fish that had taken him here, but this ancestor had clearly undergone a series of bloodline evolutions compared to Zac’s chaperone. The difference wasn’t just like the difference between Vul, the Barghest Alpha, and its brethren. It was like the difference between a dragon and a small lizard.

Looking at the Leviathan was like looking at the laws of space. A lazy wave from any one of its innumerable tentacles caused massive cracks in space, and the sail-like fin on its back was massive enough to blot out the Heavens themselves. A nebula churned around it, almost looking like cosmic waters.

Its body was also covered in huge scripts that almost seemed to be alive. Together, they formed some sort of natural formation, one that was far beyond his scope of understanding.

Zac had never seen anything like this before, not even in his Dao visions. He already knew there were impossibly large beasts wandering the endless Multiverse, but it was another thing entirely to be placed in front of one. As for its power, it was definitely not just the equivalent of a Monarch.

This was a proper Primordial Beast, one that emitted a noticeably stronger aura compared to the Havarok Autarch he saw the other day, though it didn’t quite reach the level of Be’Zi or her husband. Why was something like this here in the frontier?

Or had he actually left the frontier already, dragged to another sector entirely by the space fish?

A flash of light dragged Zac out of his thoughts and his eyes away from the terrifying being he was floating toward, just in time to see his guide disappear in a puff of Spatial Energy. Only then did he properly take in the situation, and his heart sunk even further. His group of captives were just the latest arrivals.

There were innumerable bubbles all around the behemoth. Another vortex appeared in the distance, and yet another beast chaperone came dragging a few hundred bubbles. Just like the one that had taken him here, the beast disappeared in a spatial ripple the moment it emerged, leaving its captives to their fate.

Were the smaller beasts living inside their parent? Or were they just clones?

Even without a beast to guide them, the spheres kept moving in an orderly fashion. Zac’s horror only mounted—he was heading straight for the Leviathan’s gaping maw. It was no wonder the smaller beasts hadn’t eaten any more captives as they traveled. They didn’t dare steal their leader’s dinner.

Zac’s heart beat like a drum as he scrambled for a way to survive. He’d hoped to have been captured to become an indentured worker or something, considering he’d been left alive. If that were the case, he would have a shot at escaping by using his Void Energy. But he couldn’t wait any longer now. He could feel it—if he entered that impossibly large maw, his odds of survival were essentially zero.

The Leviathan’s mouth was large enough to swallow planets whole, but it wasn’t the sharp fangs that worried him. Its maw was filled with a terrifying cloud of spatial destruction, far beyond any spatial tears he had ever seen. There was no way he would survive even a second in such an environment, yet he and the other bubbles flew toward it with blazing speed.

Terror overwrote the overwhelming pain from using the power of the Remnants as a storm of Dao and Mental Energy entered the two pathway highways on his shoulders, where Axe and Coffin were forced together. Luckily, the beast guarding his bubble was gone, giving him a small window of opportunity. What little Oblivion Energy he had saved up in his Soul Core was dragged out, acting as the catalyst for the Annihilation Sphere.

A small ball full of endless destruction rapidly grew between his hands, and Zac felt a burst of rage bubble in his mind. The shock along with the damage left behind by the Remnants made him susceptible to the whispers of the splinters. But Zac forcibly took control of the madness, using it to squeeze out a little bit more energy from his harried mind.

Meanwhile, he activated [Piercing Gaze] in search of any weak spot in his prison with the help of Void Energy, ignoring the small shudder that spread across the cage. Unfortunately, the sphere used concepts far beyond his understanding or scope of what his skill could decipher, so Zac could only slam his attack into a random spot on the wall with righteous indignation.

The satisfying scene of his cage cracking like a dome of glass didn’t appear. Zac was dismayed to realize there was a hidden spatial barrier between himself and the surface of his cage. It was just a thin film, yet it felt like his attack was forced to cross hundreds of miles to reach the wall.

By that point, his energy was almost completely expended. The sphere holding him captive only rippled a bit before a series of esoteric patterns appeared across its surface, joining the ones Zac suspected were responsible for the restrictions and energy drain. Zac scrambled for other ideas, but it was helpless.

He still had access to his Void Energy, but that didn’t do him much good. His weapon was sealed inside his Spatial Ring, and his skills would be worthless in this situation in either case. Others had unleashed far more powerful attacks than his without any luck. The high-concept Dao inside his Annihilation Sphere had been his only hope.

There was no way [Love’s Bond] would do any good in this situation either. More importantly, he was worried that activating skills would prompt the Leviathan to lash out at him prematurely, based on the new runes that covered his bubble. His only hope was that his cage would break the moment it entered the huge maw of the Leviathan and that he’d survive with the help of [Void Zone] long enough to swim out of there.

However, Zac looked around with confusion as his own sphere suddenly made a turn and diverged from the others. Almost all of the innumerable cages were dragged toward the beast’s maw, but his own joined a few thousand others that shot toward the huge fin on its back. And the difference between his own and the other spheres? The engravings.

His own cage was covered in dense scripts thanks to using the Annihilation Sphere, as were the others who avoided disaster. The markings weren’t identical, but they rather held varying echoes of the Dao, where Zac could sense a mix of Pure Death and Conflict on his own—the ground components of his Annihilation Sphere.

Another prison that wasn’t flying too far from him emitted temporal fluctuations, and Zac spotted a humanoid man sitting inside with closed eyes as though he were in the middle of meditation. Meanwhile, the bubbles which had no such unique markings moved toward the beast’s mouth.

It didn’t look like patterns were based on cultivation strength either. He saw at least two Peak or at least High Hegemons shooting for the mouth, both of them desperately banging on the barrier as they were dragged toward their doom. He’d spotted them in the Void outside the Twilight Harbor before, and had seen the shocking attacks they unleashed in an attempt to escape back into the main dimension.

His eyes met one of the others’ for a moment, and saw a chaotic mix of emotions in the Revenant’s eyes. Confusion, fear, rage, and indignation. Most importantly, reluctance. Reluctance to have their path ended like this, to become food to some monstrous beast. Zac turned away, unable to look on as they were pulled into the spatial storm.

He felt so weak and helpless, but more so, he was filled with relief. The Annihilation Sphere hadn’t managed to break him out of his prison, but it looked like it allowed him to survive the first culling. Something about the energies he unleashed had piqued the Leviathan’s interest, saving him from a gristly end.

The question was, what was it planning?

29

OROM

The group of bubbles that avoided the fate of becoming a part of the Leviathan’s feast were further divided, where 90% moved toward the tails. Next was roughly 6-7% that shot away, moving toward a large ridge on the beast’s back. Zac was in the third group, the second smallest one with just over a hundred of the ‘earmarked’ cultivators.

The final group was a solitary sphere, covered in layers and layers of engravings. It looked completely different from the others, and it suddenly just disappeared in a puff of Spatial Energy. As for his own cohort, it shot toward a spot just ahead of the enormous sail-like fin on its back.

Zac instinctively knew he’d survived some sort of culling, but was still filled with unease as his cage came closer and closer to the space fish. The gargantuan Leviathan took up most of his vision, stretching across the horizon. It was filled with such tremendous power, Zac couldn’t stop his body from shaking.

A large portal opened up in front of him. It looked a bit like the ones the smaller Leviathans created to pass through dimensions, but this one was far more stable. It was lined with patterns reminiscent of the brands that covered the whole body of the beast, natural expressions of the Dao.

The small group of spheres shot into the portal, and Zac felt an odd spatial ripple pass through him before he was shrouded in absolute darkness. A searing pain erupted on his left arm, followed by a wave of weakness that spread through his body. Zac had no time to figure out what had been done to him before the darkness lifted and Zac found himself lying with his face down in the dirt.

He hurriedly scrambled to his feet, only to find himself in the middle of a forest glade, surrounded by the captives from the other bubbles who had been sent through the final portal. His mind blanked out for a moment, and as he looked up at a purple sky. Had they been teleported to another world?

The warriors around him all gave Zac the impression of powerful elites, and he tried to flash away to create some space for himself. However, the energy in his body was extremely sluggish, and another type of seal prevented him from activating [Earthstrider]. Not only that, he felt so helplessly weak since passing through that portal.

The other cultivators were as clueless as he was on what was going on. A few tried to escape, only to find the glade sealed with some sort of array. The moment they got close, an ominous rune appeared out of nowhere.

The bubbles were gone, but they were clearly still trapped, and Zac took the chance to check his situation. The result wasn’t great. There was a new brand on top of his left hand, at the spot where he’d felt the pain before. It was extremely complex and reached halfway up his elbow, far surpassing the one Catheya’s master had once placed there.

This brand had obviously replaced the restrictions covering the bubbles, sealing his power and limiting energy circulation to a slow crawl. In other words, it was a prisoner brand, similar in function to the arrays that usually covered dungeons and prisons in the Multiverse. After all, you needed something to make sure a powerful captive didn’t lash out and kill their captors.

A glance at his Status Screen confirmed his suspicions. His real attributes were still there, but they were struck over, replaced by a line that simply said 1,000.

One thousand attribute points? That was something you’d see on an F-grade elite. No wonder he felt so weak. He was lucky he’d already placed [Verun’s Bite] into a Spatial Ring. Just carrying the axe when restricted like this would be a bit of a struggle since its most recent upgrade.

In fact, a few captives were in that exact predicament. Shimmering weapons were lying in the grass next to them, and they were desperately trying to lift them, only to barely be able to budge them. Others were luckier, wielding tools without such forbidding weight. However, the brand on Zac’s arm seemed to prevent him from communicating with [Love’s Bond], essentially turning it into a useless necklace.

Zac felt extremely exposed after having his attributes restricted to just 1,000 points, but at least it looked like everyone had been dragged down to the same level, even the Hegemons. Everyone’s aura was uniform, aside from the unique flavor granted by everyone’s Daos.

In other words, the 1,000 referred to Effective Attributes, though Zac had already guessed as much after sensing his current strength. After all, his current power was well below the state when he finally passed 1,000 raw Strength by the end of the Tower of Eternity. He didn’t get much time to think about the implications, as a new face appeared on top of a stone just outside the glade.

“Congratulations, you lucky bastards. You get to live another day,” a gruff voice boomed, prompting everyone to look over with apprehension.

The first words out of the new arrival were a bit crude, but were still a relief to Zac. It looked like his life wasn’t in immediate peril, which would give him a chance to figure some way out of this place. After all, his Void Energy had already proven to work against the restrictions of the space fish.

Having access to that hidden force had to be a tremendous advantage in this place. Not only did it allow him to unleash skills while the others were helpless, but the skills might even contain their original strength if they could properly circumvent the prison seal. Skills like [Abyssal Phase] might prove to be the key to getting out of here unseen and unnoticed.

For now, Zac would bide his time. He needed to understand what was going on, and he once more glanced at the other captives. That’s when he noticed something odd. They were all roughly the same size. If it was just a bunch of humans, Zac wouldn’t have thought much of it, but there were all kinds of races here.

He’d long become accustomed to seeing cultivators the size of buildings walking the streets, but he was now standing shoulder to shoulder with a beastkin that should at least have a meter on him. There was also a proper Ogre shaman in the mix, whose race often reached five meters or so. That scene confirmed something else he already suspected—these people weren’t all from the Twilight Harbor.

In this small group alone, eleven races weren’t native to the harbor, three of which he didn’t even recognize. At the same time, he recognized a couple of insignias on the captives and the style of clothes a few others wore. It was clear the Leviathan had sent out its feelers in multiple directions, but roughly half of these people came from the same place as he did. Moreover, he recognized a few who should be from the Havarok Empire, judging by the tattoos covering their faces.

As for the one who spoke just now, it was an unknown humanoid that was almost a bit metallic. He had just one large eye on his forehead like a cyclops, but that eye had three different pupils. He wore a gold-lined white robe, held together by a golden brooch that seemed to be an insignia of some force Zac didn’t recognize.

He didn’t wear any weapons, but Zac’s instincts told him the man was some sort of fighter leaning toward Strength just like himself. There was an innate sense of pressure emanating from his body, one that made Zac think of Greatest. No one made a move upon seeing this unknown man, though Zac could sense how many tensed up and prepared for battle.

“May I ask why you have captured and sealed us all?” a middle-aged man in a flowing robe said.

“Do I look like a jailer to you?” the metallic man snorted. “I’m in the same boat as you. I just got here a few millennia before you all.”

Zac’s heart lurched upon hearing millennia, and a few others blanched as well.

“You were all conscious for the capture? You saw that big bastard eating your companions?” the man continued. “Well, that’s the Orom. Your new home for the foreseeable future. This whole place is inside its body. It’s a true realm rather than an inner world, so don’t bother looking for the big guy’s soul.”

“Your strength is greater than ours, why?” the middle-aged captive asked, and Zac only realized the discrepancy now. The metallic man in front of them was indeed slightly more powerful than the group of warriors around him.

“See this badge?” the metallic man said as he pointed at the brooch. “This is the insignia of the Orom Attendants. We complete some tasks for the Orom, and it provides us with unique benefits in this place. A gold badge attendant, such as myself, has twice the attributes as normal citizens, though that doesn’t matter much in this place. The access to unique training grounds this brooch provides is far more important.”

Zac raptly listened to the metallic man, but he simultaneously kept trying to figure out the rules. A muffled curse from a woman next to him drew his attention to something, and he hurriedly focused on the Spatial Ring on his finger. There didn’t seem to be a spatial lock sealing them any longer, although the prison brand prevented him from using it.

“A golden badge is the equivalent of a Hall Master of a sect, I suppose,” the metallic man continued, ignoring the actions of his captive audience. “There are both higher and lower ranks. You better be careful if you run into someone with an Emerald Badge. Their attributes are capped at 10,000, and they are the only ones allowed to kill others in this world.”

Next, over a hundred crude plaques appeared in his hands, and they flew over to each captive. “For now, you’re just citizens. You don’t need to wear these like I do if you don’t want to. But don’t lose it since you need it for various things in this place. You don’t want to be forced to replace one, trust me.”

“How do we become attendants?” a beastkin asked as he snatched his token.

“You don’t,” the metallic man shrugged. “At least not right now. You will find out more when we reach the town. But suffice to say, while this place is a bit weird, some things will be quite similar to a sect. You can slowly work your way up the ladder and gain Contribution Points. These points can then be turned in for all kinds of convenient things.”

“Can they be used to buy back our freedom?” the original man asked, and the group perked up at that.

“No, you can’t. But there is a straightforward method to get out of here,” the man smiled. “You simply need to confirm your Dao.”

“What!” a man roared. “Become a Divine Monarch? Why not ask us to defend our Dao while we’re at it!”

“Hey, I don’t make the rules. I just relay them, just like how I was told when I was dragged to this place,” the attendant grinned.

The proclamation was pretty shocking, not only to Zac, but to those around him. Becoming a Divine Monarch was just not a matter of time, but talent and opportunity. Even if everyone in this small group was a Heaven’s Chosen, actually becoming a Divine Monarch was a longshot that normally required a large number of lucky encounters.

The man had essentially given them all a life sentence.

“Now, don’t look so glum,” the metal man said. “Your fate could have been a lot worse. Didn’t you see where most people were headed?”

“Did the others really get devoured?” an insectoid woman asked with a frown, and Zac shuddered upon remembering the scene outside.

It was an almost incomprehensible loss of life that had taken place. That was still taking place, by all accounts. It was a stark reminder of how Earth had essentially been a trial ground where the challenges and dangers were artificially controlled by the System. Out here in the wild, there were no safety nets, and death could lurk around any corner.

But the citizens of Twilight Harbor and the trail takers who visited, such as himself, were truly unlucky. First, the whole harbor got blown up by the struggle between a bunch of old monsters. Then, the lucky few who managed to enter the Void to avoid the fallout were snatched up by some crazy monster lurking in the shadows.

“As far as we can tell,” the metal man nodded. “You survived the great filter of the Orom, which means you have potential. The others were deemed lacking and were instead turned into nourishment. This is actually an exciting period for us old citizens. The Orom only feeds when it finds a congregation of fate, and that means two things. Fresh faces like you people and a deluge of new items up for grabs.”

Zac guessed the deluge of new items came from the hundreds of thousands of Spatial Rings that the Orom swallowed. Just the thought of all that wealth made Zac’s heart beat a bit faster, nearly forgetting their gristly origins. There had been a lot of Hegemons in the mix, and even some Monarchs might have fallen.

His wealth was pretty astounding compared to most E-grade cultivators. But compared to what this space fish swallowed? It was nothing.

“What about the other groups who survived?” another man asked with worry in his eyes. Zac guessed he’d seen someone he cared about setting off toward the tails.

“There are three groups. The largest group is sent to do miscellaneous tasks for the Orom. Indentured Servants, I guess. The second group is second-string cultivators. You’ll learn more about them later. As for you, you’re the first-string, which is what you want to be if you have to be stuck inside an enormous monster.”

“There was one more group. A single sphere,” another captive said.

“Oh?” the metallic man exclaimed with surprise. “That’s pretty rare. I haven’t heard of such a thing happening in over a hundred thousand years. I’m not sure, but I heard those people are potential disciples, sent to an inheritance trial. Others believe the Orom accidentally swallowed someone with too big a backing and is just providing them with an opportunity or some restitution before letting them go. I’m not sure which is true. In either case, it’s not related to you guys.”

“Then what does this Orom want with us?” an old man standing next to Zac asked.

“That’s the good news. It just wants you to cultivate. To break through your shackles, no matter if it’s related to your levels, constitutions, insights, souls, or crafts. Become a Divine Monarch or the equivalent, and you have provided enough to be set free,” the man snickered. “As to why the Orom is doing this, I think most of you can understand.”

Zac had no idea what he was talking about, but looking around he saw understanding on most of the new captives.

“How are we supposed to cultivate with our resources sealed in our Spatial Rings?” a woman asked with a frown. “I doubt this Orom can provide all the specialized arrays and treasures we need.”

“Outside Spatial Treasures are sealed in the Orom World, apparently because of some terrifying item that was brought onboard millions of years ago. Almost killed the big bastard, according to the records,” the attendant laughed. “However, there are secured locations you can take out any items you need for cultivation, and they will be scanned for problems. You can then transfer them into locally-made Cosmos Sacks.”

“What about my weapon?” a man frowned as he looked down at a blue staff that clearly had extraordinary origins.

“Alright, in a few moments, you will have a brief window to stow away items. You will not be able to take anything out though,” the attendant said before touching his golden insignia. “I suggest you take this opportunity or the items will be lost to you forever.”

Zac felt a shudder from the brand on his arm—it must have received some command. He tried infusing his will into the ring on his hand, but it was still out of reach. However, he saw the others hurriedly stow away the weapons that were lying on the ground.

“Well, let’s get out of here. We need to be gone before the next group arrives. I will lead you to the closest settlement. You’ll get a better understanding of the situation over there. But if you want my advice, simply settle down and focus on your Dao. This place isn’t all-too-bad,” the attendant grinned.

“Then again, I’m sure you’re all thinking of various ways to escape. I did as well, at first. But you will find that the Orom is not so easily tricked.”

30

EXPERIENCE

“Settling down is fine for some, but my Dao is confirmed through slaughter,” a scarred human said with a frown. “Settling down would destroy my path.”

“Don’t worry. There are designated zones for that as well,” the metallic man with a lazy wave as he started walking, and a shimmer across the glade indicated that the barrier had been deactivated. “Come, it’ll all be clear enough soon. Of course, you’re free to go wherever you want. I won’t stop you.”

The hundred-odd cultivators looked at each other with confusion, and most shrugged before following the Orom Attendant. A few others, including the man who traversed the path of slaughter, walked off in their own direction, soon blending with the foliage. Zac guessed those people were wandering cultivators unwilling to become part of a collective.

As for himself, Zac decided to follow the bulk of the captives. It didn’t make much sense for the attendant to be lying, and he needed to understand this place better if he wanted to attempt a prison break. The old human who spoke up earlier walked along as well, and Zac gradually made his was over to him.

“Excuse me,” Zac said with a low voice. “Could you explain why the Orom captured us?”

“What makes you think I know?” the old man said with a raised brow.

“You looked like you did. I think only a few of us were left out of the loop,” Zac said with a helpless shrug.

“Well, whatever,” the old man sighed. “You can see this one as a freebie, seeing as we got caught together. Do you know the most common way to reach the peak of cultivation?”

“Talent and lucky encounters?” Zac ventured with some confusion.

“Hardly,” the man snorted. “Theft!”

“Cultivation is endless, but resources are lacking. Especially at the top,” the old man sighed. “Not only that, but the demands on understanding become greater and greater, soon to the point that even the most talented cultivators get overwhelmed. So, they steal. Steal resources. Steal cultivation havens. Steal Dao and Fate.”

“Steal Dao and Fate?” Zac blurted, thinking back to the events of the Twilight Ascent.

It was clear that the Eveningtide Asura had turned the whole Twilight Ocean into some sort of cultivation resource. And come to think of it, the quest was designed to ‘perfect the Tapestry of Twilight.’ Was that the same thing? Using generations of cultivators to shore up his understanding. Each death, each breakthrough, a fragment was siphoned to himself.

“Looks like you get it,” the old man nodded. “This big bastard is using cultivators to speed up its progress from the looks of it. It’s a crooked path, but it’s better than doing nothing. It’s the same as what most cultivators keeping people inside their inner worlds are doing.”

Zac’s eyes widened a bit at that. This was common practice?

“Of course, it’s usually descendants who gain resources, safety, and a superior environment in return,” the old man added. “Absorbing hostiles into your world would be extremely dangerous, and it’s impossible in most cases. This big guy can only do it because we’re not actually inside an inner world. We’re quite literally inside its body, like parasites.”

“How does that affect us?” Zac asked. “If our fate is getting robbed?”

“No idea,” the old man grimaced. “But it’s not like your Daos can get ripped out of your body. Most likely you will find progress and cultivation slower, as some of the benefits goes to the landlord. And being trapped like this might slow down your momentum, subverting your fate. But I guess we’ll find out more over the following centuries.”

“Centuries…” Zac muttered with a helpless shake of his head.

“Don’t tell me you’re part of the younger generation?” the old man exclaimed as he looked over at Zac with surprise. “I thought all of us were old hands who had already confirmed our paths. But now that you mention it… Your aura…”

“E-grades and early Hegemons being dragged here are somewhat rare. I think you’re the third one to pass the filter this time around, though a few more should arrive over the following week. Your insights are too shallow to bring any benefits to the Orom, but it has decided to take a bet on you. If one is snatched, they usually have something interesting going on,” the metallic man grunted as he looked back from the front. He had clearly heard the whole conversation. “If you want my advice, kid, avoid the combat-oriented places for now.”

“Why?” Zac asked, realizing he might have inadvertently divulged more than he should have. “Isn’t everyone sealed the same?”

A few of the captives immediately started laughing, and the old man looked at Zac like he was a fool. “Brat, stop my fist.”

Zac looked over with surprise, only to find a punch already flying toward his face. Zac’s own body was thankfully already moving by instinct, and he used one hand to divert the blow while countering with a gut-punch of his own. There was something off with the old man’s attack though, and Zac was forced to adjust his body over and over to avoid its trajectory.

However, no matter what he did, the fist just kept getting closer, while his own attack was somehow way off-mark. A moment later he found himself on the ground with a blazing pain in his head. He tried to get back on his feet, but he was actually groggy enough to fall back down on his ass.

What just happened? Their attributes were the same, yet it felt like the old man was twice as fast as he was.

“Brat, I could defeat ten of you simply based on my experience,” the old man laughed. “And I’m just a Late-Stage Hegemon. The Monarchs would be able to take on an army of you brats while having the same attributes. Our attributes are locked, but that doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from our understanding of combat and the Dao.”

“Well, shit,” Zac muttered as he shook his head to regain some clarity.

It was true. He’d be able to take out at least ten people with similar stats back on Earth based on his combat experience alone. Add to that, the combat stances he started to form based on his Daos and his Path, and he was undefeatable. But compared to a Late Hegemon, he was still far lacking in experience. They had all fought longer than he had lived.

Furthermore, those who made it to this place, rather than getting killed, were all unusually talented from the looks of it. It would be odd if they hadn’t all formed a path of their own and spent millennia polishing it.

“Well, it’s not all bad, kid,” the metallic man laughed as he started walking over. “You’re at the bottom of the totem pole right now, but the fact that you were dragged here proves your talent is uncommonly high. People in your situation seem to have the highest chance of leaving this place, only exceeded by the high-grade Monarchs right at the precipice. Some of us might rely on you in a few dozen millennia to get word to our families.”

Zac looked at the metallic man with gratitude—he was helping him out here. The last sentence could act as a deterrent to the old monsters around him. Messing with him might be nice to relieve some stress in this messed-up situation, but it might come back to bite them in the future.

Besides, he had one unique advantage to defend himself in this place if it came down to it. His bloodline.

“Have there been people saved by their families?” a graceful woman asked, speaking up for the first time.

“There are occasionally such things happening,” the metallic man nodded. “Some people have been teleported out from this place without breaking through. Others have just disappeared. Most of these people have been ransomed by the Orom, or perhaps the Orom was threatened to spit them out. But don’t expect anything unless you have Autarchs among your elders.”

“And some have disappeared?” another man said speculatively.

“They might have died or they might have figured out a way to escape. No trap is perfect,” the attendant shrugged. “And don’t ask me how, I have no idea. If you lack the confidence to confirm your Dao but have some powerful ancestors, I’d suggest you start making fate tokens and giving them out to those who seem to have the potential to leave the normal way. Usually, when someone confirms their Dao, a few more people are freed within a few centuries.”

“Is it possible to break through grades in this place?” Zac asked.

“Most look at the Orom like a jailer, but you can also consider it a gardener,” the metallic man said as he reached a hand toward Zac to help him up. “We are the crops it’s growing. And how could crops grow without the proper nourishment? You’ll find that this place has some advantages that are hard to find elsewhere. I’m Murbot, by the way.”

“Zac,” Zac grunted as he got back on his feet. He shot a glance at the old man who’d explained things to him earlier. “Some punch.”

“Don’t feel too bad, I’ve been beating up brats like you for two thousand years,” the man guffawed. “Your reaction wasn’t bad, much better than my shitty descendants.”

Zac smiled in return, though he was a bit surprised inwardly. The Hegemon looked pretty old, to the point Zac suspected he was running out of longevity. But two thousand years was nothing to someone at that level. If anything, he was still young, completely different from the old Hegemons who had been stuck at some bottleneck for eons.

He didn’t know why the man looked like that, though it probably was just a mark of eccentricity. Most people preferred to stay young-looking, while others went in a different direction. On second thought, Zac should have figured that was the case. What would the Orom want with an old man stuck at a bottleneck? How many insights and breakthroughs could someone like that provide?

The group started moving again. However, they only moved for another few minutes before they stopped again. It wasn’t due to Murbot explaining something, but rather because of the appearance of a densely engraved pyramid in the woods.

“A seal mountain, Pseudo C-grade!” the old man exclaimed, and more than one warrior rushed forward with greed in their eyes.

However, Zac stayed behind, as did most of the captives. Greed had made even these Hegemons forget themselves, but Zac understood it wasn’t a coincidence they passed this thing. How could something so valuable just be up for grabs? And how would anyone even stow it away with their Spatial Treasures locked?

As expected, the old masters soon returned a bit shamefaced a minute later, all of them unsurprisingly empty-handed.

“What a waste,” the old man groaned as he threw a wistful look at the mountain. “That’s at least 100 C-grade coins left lying in the wild.”

Zac looked at the mountain with shock and avarice, plans already forming in his mind. Perhaps there would be an opportunity to snatch it in the future with the help of his Bloodline Talent. Perhaps there were even better treasures waiting out there for him.

“It’s a good reminder for you all,” Murbot grinned. “As I mentioned before, you will be able to transfer your items to local Cosmos Sacks, but you need to be careful. You need the strength to put the items back again. This thing was left here three hundred thousand years ago by a gold badge wanting to show off to a new batch of recruits. No one has been able to take it away since.”

Zac snorted, and a few laughs emerged from the group. The scene was a bit odd considering everyone had just become a prisoner, where most were bound to be trapped for the rest of their lives. If it was earthlings, most would be deep in a pit of despair. Then again, these people were all Hegemons and higher who had confirmed their paths and were elites in their own right.

Something like this probably wasn’t enough to cause a ripple in their mental state even if they didn’t have the hidden means as he had.

The group kept walking for another two hours, their progress feeling uncomfortably slow now that his Dexterity had been cut down to a tenth. Although, Zac’s annoyance was nothing compared to the Hegemons who probably weren’t used to walking long stretches anymore. People kept peppering Murbot with questions, but he wasn’t too interested in divulging any secret tricks of this place.

He kept saying that everything would be made known when they reached their destination. And finally, a small town came into view, looking almost like something you’d find in a fairy tale. The streets were wide and clean, and the homes were beautiful mansions. Not only that, the ambient energy was extremely dense, something Zac noticed since being dragged into this place. It wasn’t just a matter of quantity, but quality.

Catheya had talked about outer realms being far from the Heavens when describing the frontier, but he hadn’t understood what that meant. Now, it felt clearer. He wouldn’t say the Cosmic Energy was attuned or that the air was filled with Origin Dao. It was simply… Better.

He could sense his Daos with greater clarity, like the opposite feeling of when he was in the Tower of Eternity and the Dao felt hollow from the time dilation. It didn’t feel as palpable as when Earth was newly integrated and rife with Origin Dao, it was stable and pervasive. Perhaps it was equivalent to a C-grade continent, considering that people had managed to achieve Divine Monarchy in this place.

“As far as prisons go, this is probably the best one I’ve been locked inside,” a beastkin muttered, prompting a few laughs.

“If you like this place, then you better work hard. You remember those second-string cultivators I mentioned?” Murbot said as he glanced back at the group. “Their environment is… Not quite as nice. You are presented with a carrot, they are presented with a stick. If you don’t progress fast enough, you will be relegated down and they will take your place. And let me tell you, those people would be ready to slaughter their clans for a chance to move here after a few years in that place.”

Zac shuddered, once more reminded that the Orom wasn’t some benign being that provided cultivation opportunities for the fun of it. It was doing all this for its cultivation, and any dead weight who didn’t provide insights would be discarded. He’d heard a few stories about the kind of places where established factions created deathsworn, squads of humanoid killing machines. The Orom was most likely using those kinds of cruel methods to squeeze out any potential it could from those second-string cultivators.

“I’ll give you a warning. You are safe from the first relegation, after which you will have to fight for your right to stay. Things might look relaxed, but everyone is desperately cultivating to stay ahead,” Murbot added. “Now, follow me. There is one last place I need to show you before I set you loose.”

The group walked for a few more minutes until they reached a large square filled with people, a mix of old prisoners and other cultivators who’d just been dragged here as well. The old cultivators seemed to belong to two groups. The first group was walking in and out of a large building, clearly having errands to run.

The other group was just there to look at the newcomers, and Zac noticed a few of the new captives were approached. Zac’s eyes thinned, his scammer-sense waking up. Almost like the prisoners were trying to take advantage of the newcomers somehow. Of course, no one who’d made it here was a fool, and it looked like the attempts were met with failure.

“This place is the beginner’s square,” Murbot explained as he pointed at the large hall with constant foot traffic. “The store is over there. There are more towns out there on this continent, and they all have roughly the same items. You all get 1,000 Purchase Points to start off, which can help you get settled in the Orom World. There are various ways to gain more points, but read about that yourselves. Alright, I’m off. Good luck, hatchlings.”

The attendant turned and used his superior attributes to zip away. Zac looked in his direction for a few moments before turning to the two massive steles that were erected in the center of the square. They listed the rules and regulations, and the more people read, the worse their expressions got.

Zac was the same with a furrow on his face. This place looked nice and orderly, but in reality, it was pretty sinister.

31

FREEDOM’S END

The world they had been trapped in was simply called the Orom World, and they currently occupied a town somewhat morbidly named Freedom’s End. There were seventeen more towns in total, though you were allowed to set up a cultivation cave almost wherever you wanted. Traveling this world from end to end would take about five months, even with their current attributes, proof of just how massive the innards of this Leviathan was.

There had to be some high-grade spatial manipulation at play for this to be possible. The Orom had been larger than a planet, but it ultimately wasn’t large enough for someone with 1,000 Dexterity to take almost half a year to rush from end to end.

Thankfully, there was a system of teleportation arrays that only required 10 Purchase Points to use. Even better, the first three uses were on the house, allowing the newcomers to check a few things out. After that, you had to use the points you collected. The most straightforward method to gain more points was to make improvements to your cultivation.

Every single Contribution Point you gained, also awarded a single Purchase Point. Unfortunately, there was no clear explanation of how many points different breakthroughs awarded. It was all up to the discretion of the Orom, decreed through the brand on their hands. You could also gain Purchase Points through trade or a few other means, but Contribution Points only came from making progress.

As to why there were eighteen towns, it was related to the cultivation like most things in this place. Freedom’s End had no particular attunement, but there were seven neighboring zones that all had different attunements related to nature. Zac looked around the square, sensing that most cultivators in the area had an earthy aura. Freedom’s End was probably where these Nature-aspected cultivators completed any business they had.

Most of the other towns had similar functions, being central hubs surrounded by enriched cultivation environments following various peaks, from Space to the Five Elements. Zac’s eyes eventually stopped at the eighth settlement—Samsara’s Edge. It was a town surrounded by zones of Life and Death.

Wasn’t that just perfect for him?

The description of Samsara’s Edge even had an additional note that the Death-attuned zones were filled with Miasma rather than Cosmic Energy, and Zac guessed that was where most of the undead in the Orom cultivated. Zac had already realized that escaping right away was impossible, no matter how much he wanted to get back to Earth.

Whether the escape method he landed on would rely on Kenzie’s teleportation arrays or him making use of his bloodline, he would probably only get one shot. So first, he needed to recuperate to a perfect state, and if possible, empower himself even further before making his move. Secondly, it would take some time to devise a plan, considering it was a proper Autarch keeping him trapped.

He couldn’t just plonk down the teleportation array in the middle of the forest and expect it to work.

As for rescue, Zac didn’t hold up much hope. Even if someone from the Undead Empire became interested in him after Catehya’s report and the events in the harbor, how would they even find him? He’d stopped counting after passing through fifty dimensional layers on his way to the Orom, and the beast most likely used various Top-grade methods to avoid being hunted down.

And while his mother was technically an Autarch as far as he could tell, there was no way she would be interested in helping him. The only way Zac could see that happening was if she felt his imprisonment an affront to her own exalted name or something similarly insane. He would have to rely on himself to get out of here, and he kept reading the large stele in hopes of gaining clues that could help with that.

As to why the Orom was interested in so many different peaks of cultivation, Zac had no idea, and neither was it explained. Perhaps it was hoping to draw inspiration from all kinds of sources. Besides, Spatial Cultivators were just too rare, just like Karmic Cultivators. There was no way it would be able to fill a whole world like this with Spatial Cultivators, at least not without garnering a whole lot of unwanted attention.

Zac guessed that using his Annihilation Sphere had marked him as a unique talent of Death or perhaps even Oblivion, which was why he was sent to cultivate rather than turned into food. The sphere likely had some sort of affinity tester, and he wasn’t surprised that it didn’t initially consider him a target for nurturing.

Not all the towns were these kinds of elemental hubs though. One of them housed an arena where you could fight against both beasts and other cultivators. You could even bet your Purchase Points there when fighting, but betting on others wasn’t allowed. You needed to earn any points you gained in the Orom World.

Another town held the gate to the 'Wilderness', a vast sector teeming with beasts. It was a place to temper yourself, to confirm the insights you’d gained while meditating.

The space in the Wilderness was far larger than the rest of the Orom World combined, but that resulted in the cultivation environment being worse. Setting up a cultivation cave there would be impractical, but those who confirmed their path through slaughter would invariably spend a lot of time there.

Skill fractals were unlocked there as well, though the attribute limiters were still active. Zac didn’t quite understand how you could possibly power up a Monarch’s or Hegemon’s skills with only 1,000 attributes available, but he guessed the Orom had figured out some way to let cultivators use lesser versions of their skills.

If one of the plaques held the various spots and highlights of this world, then the next one held the rules. As Zac read one after another, it became all-too-apparent that the luxurious and carefree front of this place was all but an illusion. There were extremely strict rules put in place to maximize the benefits of the Orom.

Just as Murbot mentioned, there were recurring relegations. E-grade cultivators were measured once every five years, Hegemons once every fifty years, and Monarchs once every five hundred. The rules were simple: there were only so many spots on the first-string, and those spots were handed out based on the number of Contribution Points you gathered since the last relegation.

If you were a first-string cultivator and got stuck at some bottleneck, you’d probably get replaced by a second-string cultivator soon enough. And the lowest-performing members of the second-string were straight-up killed as a warning to the others. That essentially meant any Hegemon who found themselves unable to make progress for a few hundred years would get executed.

As new arrivals, their situation was a bit special. Murbot had mentioned being safe from the first relegation, but that was only against the old prisoners. Their group of new arrivals would have one reshuffle in three years before they started to compete against the main population for slots. Zac guessed that was an extra measure, because those prison bubbles were only so accurate to determine talent.

If you didn’t perform, you’d quickly fall out of grace and enter a world of hurt. Conversely, there were perks of making large strides in your cultivation. The more Contribution Points you gathered, the more Purchase Points you could exchange for different kinds of cultivation treasures without affecting your placement. Even better, high placements would provide additional benefits such as access to restricted cultivation grounds.

And from the sounds of it, there were marvelous spots inside the Orom that were attractive to even Monarchs.

As for the other rules, they were like most clans, except stricter. That was actually a good thing for Zac, considering how he was at the bottom of the totem pole. Killing was strictly prohibited, and even harassing cultivators who were meditating resulted in harsh contribution penalties.

The method to become Orom Attendants like Murbot was simple enough as well. You needed to gain a certain amount of total contribution, while also completing some quests the Orom assigned.

There were a few other rules that made it clear this place wasn’t some sect though. For example, procreation was banned. Having a child would result in harsh penalties, and the child would be taken away. Zac guessed the Orom didn’t want sprawling clans springing up inside its body, draining its resources, and it took to draconian measures to make sure that didn’t happen.

That resulted in there only being roughly 500,000 cultivators living in the Orom World. Of course, this small group alone would most likely be able to easily conquer a sector like Zecia, considering most of them were elite Hegemons and Monarchs the Orom felt was worthy to keep around.

“Three years… I’ll have to go all out,” the old man said with a grimace before he turned to Zac. “So, what will you do, brat?”

“I’ll rest a week or two before I start looking for a place to set up camp,” Zac sighed. “I was almost killed a few times over before getting captured, I need to recuperate a bit.”

“You were in the middle of a fight as well? Where did you come from?” the old man asked curiously.

Zac didn’t immediately answer, prompting the old man to snort. “What a careful brat. I’m just trying to figure out how wide a net that big bastard was casting. I’m from the Yr’Lyserium Sector, a subsidiary sector of a faction called the Radiant Temple.”

A few of the new arrivals walked over, and a tattooed warrior spoke up. “23rd Outer Regiment of the Havarok Army.”

The old man and two others looked at the beastman with small frowns, but he soon relaxed with a shrug. “I guess old grudges are irrelevant here.”

“I came from the Twilight Harbor,” Zac said, and many indicated they had the same origin, just like he’d suspected.

“Oh, that trading hub in the frontier?” the old man exclaimed with surprise. “Quite a distance from us. This big bastard has quite some reach. It should have made use of the Tarramak Vault somehow. Must have defended its Dao under the Path of Space to accomplish something like this. And how come so many of you came from there?”

“I don’t think Twilight Harbor exists any longer,” Zac said. “I’m not sure exactly what happened, but a full-scale war broke out, destroying a whole Mystic Realm while I was still inside. It was pandemonium outside, and I was dragged into a spatial tear. I was captured before I found a way back into the main dimension.”

He obviously wouldn’t mention that he played a pretty big role in destroying the Twilight Ocean. As far as he was concerned, Arcaz Black had nothing to do with him. He wasn’t sure he would ever be able to use that identity again, depending on the Undead Empire’s response to his actions.

Of course, this was all dependent on him actually finding a way out of here.

“The Twilight Lord sacrificed the Mystic Realm to create a chance to form a Ladder to Eternity,” a beautiful woman with two long tails sighed. “I was thrown into the Void before I had a chance to see the result.”

“An ascent in the frontier?” the old man exclaimed, and a few others had faces full of longing as well. “I wish I was there to see it.”

“He was really trying to become an Autarch?” Zac asked curiously as he looked at the two-tailed woman. “I thought that wasn’t possible in the frontier.”

He’d already discussed the situation with Catheya at length, but the people around him were all old monsters who should know more. He would have to be crazy to not make use of the opportunity to play dumb and glean some hard-to-access information.

The woman hesitated, but eventually said, “That is normally the case. I’m just a Hegemon as well, so I don’t know how it was possible.”

“As the universe matures, the Dao grow scarce,” the insectoid woman spoke up. “The Boundless Heavens have ushered in an era of prosperity, but the Heavens can’t keep up. The ancient factions refuse to give up their advantages and draw the Heavens to their side, leaving the Dao scattered in the frontiers. Still, the Dao is omnipresent, and the Heavens can be recalled to the frontier with the right catalyst.”

“The Boundless Heavens occasionally integrates unusually energy-dense dimensions, allowing for a burst of progress before those at the peak intervene,” another old man smiled. “Those ancient factions say it’s for the safety of those on the frontier. With them shrouding the Heavens, no Autarchs will naturally appear. In return, Autarchs will find travel on the frontier a constant drain on their foundations.”

The cultivator didn’t say it outright, but his expression told Zac all he needed to know on what he thought about the protection of the ancient factions. It was just an excuse to drain the weaker sectors and enrich their own cultivation grounds. Those kinds of things were beyond him, but it further explained why Leandra had been so insistent on taking Kenzie away from Zecia at least.

“So, anyone breaking through to Autarchy inside the Orom and freeing everyone is impossible?” Zac sighed, realizing that insight would never be enough to reach Autarchy.

It didn’t matter how deep your insights were or how great a foundation you had laid down. If you lacked that pure connection to the Heavens, no one would be calling down the Heavens to defend their Dao. If Zac was a space fish abductor, then his first order of business would be to make sure that kind of connection was impossible.

“Unless someone figures out a way to steal the foundation of the Orom itself to fuel their Ascent,” another man said with a lazy shrug. “It’s already a link to the Heavens through its own confirmed Dao. Seems like it doesn’t want to find out if such a thing is possible, thus booting anyone with a confirmed Dao.”

The group kept discussing the Eveningtide Asura’s attempt for a while longer, but people started setting out soon enough. Ultimately, they had only been gathered together by chance, and only two pairs seemed to have any relation to each other on the outside.

“I guess something like this is hard to stomach for a youngling like you,” the old man sighed as he looked at the people walking away. “For me, this place might be the only chance I have of ever forming an inner world.”

“Just when I was about to try out for the Radiant Temple,” Zac said with a smile. “I received a token to head over to Yr’Vanium Sector and all.”

“Really?” the old man guffawed. “Well, if you manage to get out, you can always contact my old friend. He’s just an information officer in the Radiant Temple, but has some good connections and a soft spot for outside hires. His name is Io Sardovar.”

“You have that much hope in me?” Zac smiled.

The old man grinned a bit as he furtively looked around. “Your reaction is the same as ours, but our situation isn’t the same. This place might actually improve our chances to reach Divine Monarchy. I essentially had no hopes before, but this place… at least gives me a sliver of a chance. But a young E-grade fledgling like you should be a lot more struck to have their path derailed. I think you have some confidence in getting out of here. Do you have an Autarch ancestor perhaps? Are you a descendant that one of the Grand Elders sired outside the temple?”

Zac only gave a blank look in return, knowing all-too-well what the old man was thinking.

“Well, whatever,” the old man snorted when Zac refused to answer. “In either case, I’d like to leave a message with you as soon as I figure out how. In return, you can come once a month to get pummeled by me. You still have a lot of room for improvement, so it should provide you with some inspiration. I will reside somewhere in Glimmershroud.”

Glimmershroud was one of the towns surrounded by zones related to the Dao of Order and the Dao of Space. Zac couldn’t sense which one the old man followed, but he leaned toward the former considering what he’d learned about the Radiant Temple.

“Alright. Those paths unfortunately aren’t for me, but I’ll come over if I get some points to spare,” Zac smiled.

“Bring some alcohol if you do. A vigorous brat like you should be able to gather a lot of Purchase Points in short order. Don’t be stingy with your friends,” the old man said before he sauntered away.

“Friends? You didn’t even introduce yourself,” Zac muttered with some exasperation before he walked toward the contribution exchange.

There were two functions the Contribution Store filled: to sell the cultivation resources available in the Orom and unseal the items locked in your Spatial Treasures. Zac wasn’t sure which of those services he was most eager about, and the prospect of treasure almost allowed him to forget the predicament he was in.

32

UNBOXING

The insides of the Contribution Store were quite large, with a fifty-meter-wide disk where just as many clerks stood in attendance. Zac noted they all wore the same white robes, with a similar insignia as the one Murbot wore. However, Zac sensed that these people weren’t someone standing above him in the Orom’s hierarchy, but rather below.

These people emitted extremely faint auras, and Zac guessed their attributes were locked at something like 2-300 at best. Most likely, they were part of the servants, the people who made up the largest group of those captured.

Some of the disks were occupied with customers, and Zac noted that anyone using the services had their surroundings blurred, making it impossible to see what was going on. Zac thought for a second before he walked over to one of the free attendants, this one a middle-aged human.

“Welcome, how can I help?” the man said with a smile.

“Uh, I’m new here. Do you have a catalog or something I can look through?” Zac asked.

“Oh, young master is part of the latest batch?” the man sighed, and Zac could see some jealousy flash in the man’s eyes before it was gone. “Of course, the Exchange provides a catalog free of charge.”

He handed over a crystal, but Zac looked at it with confusion. How was he supposed to activate it with the brand on his hand?

“The energy seal is a lot more complex than you might expect,” the man said with a small smile. “Just try to activate it like normal.”

Zac was a bit skeptical, but followed the instructions. Suddenly, his Cosmic Energy flowed freely, entering and activating the crystal without issue.

“You can divide items in the Orom World between authorized and unauthorized. The seal will not prevent you from using authorized items, while unauthorized treasures will be locked out,” the clerk explained.

Zac had already read about this on the signs outside, but was surprised how seamlessly it worked. The prison array on his hand was clearly High-quality if it could make distinctions like that on the fly.

“Where do I authorize my items?” Zac asked.

“Do you see the rooms over there?” The man pointed to the left. “Those are unsealing chambers, one of the few places where you can activate your Spatial Ring. You can take out any items you require there and have them authorized. You should beware though, the room is covered in arrays that would detect if you try to take out something dangerous or detrimental to the Orom. If you take out such offensive treasures, you will be deducted Contribution Points, perhaps even executed.”

“If I had items like that I wouldn’t be here,” Zac cursed under his breath.

This Primordial Beast was just too careful, maintaining such restrictions even on E-grade cultivators. Still, that wasn’t all bad. The more draconic the measures, the better it might actually be for him. The more focus they put on places like these unsealing chambers, the less attention they might place on other parts of the Orom where they wouldn’t expect Spatial Rings to work.

For now, Zac focused on the situation at hand. He’d been given 1,000 Contribution Points, and he might as well make the most of the situation. However, the more he read the more his brows furrowed together.

“This is it?” Zac eventually asked.

“Well, we are right at the end of a cycle, and it was an unusually long one. No new materials have appeared for almost eight hundred years, the last time the Orom fed,” the man helplessly explained. “However, there are also better items available, though young master needs to increase his standing first. There are also some unique attuned items in their respective settlement that you will not find in the others.”

Zac nodded in understanding.

“When will the stock be replenished then?” Zac asked.

It was a bit morbid to ask about the scraps from the innumerable people the Orom had killed and consumed, but he couldn’t be picky in a place like this. He, in particular, required large amounts of resources to progress. If his prison escape dragged out, he would definitely need every advantage he could get to stay ahead.

“The servants are fast at work categorizing the newly acquired items,” the clerk explained. “It usually takes around two months until the process is complete. At that point, the items will be added to the stores or made available in other ways. Some treasures might appear before that, though, as you new arrivals exchange items for points.”

Zac thoughtfully nodded. The last part was the result of an odd rule in the Orom World, where you could only sell outside items to the Orom itself, in exchange for Purchase Points. However, if you crafted pills or grew herbs inside the Orom, you could sell them freely, though at a price set by the Contribution Store.

An odd rule designed to extract as much progress as possible out of the captives, but Zac guessed it was the result of some other incident far in the past. According to Murbot, the Orom World had been extremely lax at the start, but things had become increasingly draconic over the eons as highly motivated cultivators kept causing chaos in their attempts to escape.

“Alright. For now, I’ll take a Low-grade Cosmos Sack and an Elementary Cave Kit,” Zac said.

The Cosmos Sack wasn’t anything impressive, except for the fact that it was an authorized item. Its size was just a tenth of his better Spatial Rings, but that was more than enough to carry miscellaneous items he needed during his stay here. There were far better versions as well, but things got expensive very quickly. The Cosmos Sack he bought cost just 10 Contribution Points, whereas the worst Spatial Rings cost over 500.

The Elementary Cave Kit cost 50 Contribution Points and was a set of five arrays meant to facilitate cultivation. Three of the arrays were for cultivation: a gathering array to increase energy density, a purity array to strengthen the attunement of the cave, and a clarity array that worked like the incense and prayer mats in his possession.

The last two were an isolation array that would allow you to cultivate without interruptions, and finally a climate array that dealt with everything from temperature, humidity, to things such as cleaning and pest control. Zac didn’t really benefit from the energy density or the attunement for his normal cultivation, but it might be needed for something else—his soul.

The oceans in his soul had probably surpassed what was intended by the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] already, and his soul had taken another leap forward after consuming the second Splinter of Oblivion. He just needed to rest up and consolidate his gains, after which he was ready to take the next step.

The Elementary Cave Kit was heavily subsidized as well, to the point it was almost a freebie for newcomers. But apart from that, it was slim pickings. Zac also got a more detailed map of the Orom World for 5 Contribution Points, after which he walked over to the unsealing chambers.

The room was empty when Zac entered, and he could feel how a number of arrays activated the moment the door closed behind him. It felt like he’d entered a different dimension altogether, probably a security measure in case a Monarch took out some terrifying offensive talisman with the power to destroy a country.

A crystal lay waiting on a table, and a burst of information entered Zac’s mind after instilling the crystal with some energy. Zac mulled things over for a few seconds before pile after pile of various Supreme-grade crystals appeared in the room before entering his new Cosmos Sack. After that, Zac took out various herbs he’d gathered in the Twilight Ocean.

He was focusing on things that would benefit his cultivation in the short run, either through direct digestion or after being turned into pills. After the natural treasures, he also took out a series of arrays. Each time he took out an array disk, a presence descended on the room before the item was scanned.

His Soul Cultivation Arrays and specialized energy gathering arrays passed just fine, but when he tried taking out an escape talisman, it immediately combusted. Thankfully, a few of his practice axes weren’t stopped, but he didn’t dare take out [Verun’s Bite] in case the Orom would destroy it.

Soon enough, a small hill of items had entered his new Cosmos Sack, at which point Zac was content. Luckily, it was cheap enough to authorize and transfer cultivation resources. Basic cultivation resources were free, which included all types of Nexus Crystals and most common herbs.

The more unique herbs Zac had taken out from the depths of the Twilight Ocean were scanned for 1 Purchase Point each, and the arrays weren’t that much more expensive. By the time Zac was done, he’d only spent 34 Purchase Points, saving the rest for when the other resources appeared.

Of course, Zac didn’t immediately leave the chamber. This was one of the few places where he could freely open Spatial Treasures, and he’d been waiting for weeks to find out exactly what kind of treasures he’d been carrying. His heart beat with anticipation as he took out one item after another from his pockets.

First, he checked the Cosmos Sacks he picked up in the Void and from the cultivators in the City of Ancients. Altogether, there were dozens of them, yet their combined value wasn’t anything too impressive. Unsurprisingly, even the ones he got from the Void had exclusively been owned by E-grade cultivators and lower, and the gains were thereafter.

The only exceptions were a couple of Manuals that seemed higher-quality than anything he had back on Earth, along with a Body Tempering Manual. Most of their information was sealed, but Zac still put them in his Authorized Sack. There were also two High-quality herbs Zac didn’t recognize, along with a few thousand Twilight Fruits.

After picking out what he wanted, Zac threw each Cosmos Sack onto another array in the room. Space twisted, and a moment later the sack was gone and Zac had gained a couple of Purchase Points. The items in each Cosmos Sack provided between 0 and 2 points. It wasn’t much, but it helped cover some of his expenses while freeing up his pockets.

After performing a mental tally, Zac realized why the Orom was so insistent on keeping a monopoly. It actually paid less than a tenth compared to the prices quoted in the store, which no doubt helped it save a lot on expenses. It was a bit annoying, but Zac wasn’t too interested in making more points in any case.

Instead, he focused on the Spatial Rings he’d looted. Most of them had been taken from bodies that emitted fierce auras, and he had high hopes for their contents.

And he wasn’t disappointed.

The first ring contained a vast assortment of arrays, Cosmic Crystals, unique treasures, and information missives. It was a shocking collection of items, far surpassing any of the bags he’d looted in the Twilight Ocean, and going through them all would take months. There were thousands of other items as well.

Sets of equipment that seemed to be D-grade, weapons, tools for blacksmithing, raw metals, and ores. Zac looked upon the huge array of items with wonder until he finally put the ring back in his pocket without taking anything out. The treasures in this thing were definitely worth a whole pile of D-grade Nexus Coins, but he didn’t want to take out things in the Orom World unless necessary, both to avoid any unforeseen risks and the expenditure.

His Mental Energy swept through one ring after another, and while most had clearly belonged to the wealthy among the younger generation, a few of them had been owned by proper Hegemons. One thing he noticed was the huge discrepancy in wealth between the D-grade cultivators.

A few barely had a any Cosmic Crystals or treasures to their names, while the items were cheap mass-produced stuff. It was just like the broken-down Cosmos Sack he’d looted from the Hegemon skeleton that had become an octopus’ home. He had been way poor, no matter if you compared to Zac himself or the previous owner of the first ring he scanned.

Meanwhile, a few rings had hundreds of impressive-looking raw materials, everything from stacks of jade boxes containing natural treasures to slabs of shimmering metals. If converted into Nexus Coins, each such item would probably be worth anything from a few hundred to tens of thousands of D-grade Nexus Coins.

Two rings only contained mountains of low-grade cultivation materials, perhaps some Clan’s stock of resources taken away when the chaos ensued. The quality of the items was much lower than what he’d sent back home to Earth with Vilari, but the quantities more than made up for it.

Zac’s mind was abuzz as he kept a mental tally of his estimates, and he eventually passed 4 C-grade Nexus Coins by the time he’d gone through all the rings. It wasn’t like his wealth had skyrocketed, but that was a huge windfall, and one not tainted with the bad blood of Leandra’s gift. Furthermore, there were hundreds of items, treasures, and materials he hadn’t included or given low price tags since he had no idea what they were worth.

For all he knew, the actual number might be five times his estimate.

He also located a bunch of items he could directly benefit from, including both Attribute Fruits and Dao Treasures to replenish his dwindling stocks. But he left those items behind as well, wanting to plan out his next move before wasting any more Purchase Points.

Next, he eagerly took out the Spatial Gem that had supposedly belonged to Aia Ouro, and his eyes lit up when he swept his mind through the crystal. It was extremely well-stocked with all kinds of arrays and related materials. More importantly, the Spatial Tool contained two different types of crystals that emitted energy fluctuations that resonated with his soul.

There were even three densely engraved boxes, each one containing what seemed to be a supreme cultivation treasure, two of which clearly related to the soul. The last one was a piece of black glass, which Zac had no idea what it entailed. Considering it was treated with the same importance as treasures that gave off even greater mental fluctuations than the grass he used for cultivation in the Twilight Chasm, it had to be something special.

Finally, Zac turned toward the final item—Uona’s Spatial Ring. From the looks of it, Clan Noz’Valadir was more powerful than Hive Ouro, and Uona was more of an elite than Aia Ouro, so he had great hopes for her Spatial Treasure. However, Zac’s eyes widened with horror the moment he infused the ring with energy.

It was like he’d set off some chain reaction when activating the item, and the spatial pocket rapidly collapsed. He desperately started taking out one item after another, focusing on the materials and items that looked the most expensive or useful. There was simply too little time though, and he was dismayed to find his mental tendril suddenly cut off, and the ring crumbled.

In front of him, five items were resting on the scanning table: a box containing six sanguine gems shimmering with dark energies, two pieces of metal that seemed even better than anything he’d found in the Twilight Ocean, a vial of blood, and a set of Information Crystals.

That was all he managed to take out before the ring crumbled. Though the rest were mostly mountains of loot from those she’d murdered in the trail by the looks of it. These five items should have been among the best things in her possession. The array scanned one item after another, and Zac was surprised to see it took as long to scan the vial as the rest of the items combined.

Not only that, he noticed that scanning the blood cost a whopping 100 Contribution Points, even though the process normally was almost free. Zac thought the odd gems to be the most valuable, but it looked like it was the blood. Zac thought back to his battle with Uona, and the events that preceded it. He'd wondered where she got the energy to raise so many Blood Thralls while also nurturing that terrifying Blood Effigy.

Was this blood perhaps the answer?

The vial was sealed, but even then, he felt a sense of pressure emanating from the swirling blood inside. It should be a Pseudo D-grade item at most, considering she had brought it into the trial. Although, it was also possible Uona had managed to sneak inside a proper D-grade material with the help of her ancestor.

In either case, Zac hoped it would be useful for Verun to finally make the push toward Peak E-grade, and perhaps even set the foundations for evolving to D-grade in the future. He stowed away the items in his Cosmos Sack before finally leaving the sealed chamber and the Contribution Store.

From there, Zac traveled Freedom’s End for a few more hours, learning snippets of information here and there. Eventually, he picked an empty house, of which there were quite a few, and settled down for the day to digest what had happened.

As he looked down at the street from his window, Zac pondered on what he should do next. His first instinct had been to escape as quickly as possible to go back to Earth, using his bloodline to circumvent the Orom’s restrictions.

But was that really the right move?

The incursion back on Earth had already started, it was too late for him to do anything about it. Not that he could, in either case. The level limit was 100, while he’d reached 123. The cost to enter as reinforcement would be shocking, if he was allowed inside at all. He couldn’t be certain, but he didn’t think it was a coincidence the opportunity was awarded while he was gone. It wasn’t an opportunity meant for him.

He still couldn’t enter the inheritance trial either, and according to Leandra, it would be years before the Dimensional Seed reappeared in the Million Gates Territory. Meanwhile, his actions in the Twilight Ocean had no doubt caused some ripples, and he couldn’t put his whole faith in Catheya’s ability to turn the situation in his favor.

Perhaps, hiding out in a space fish for a couple of months while things calmed down wasn’t the worst of ideas.

33

THE PURSUIT OF COMPLETENESS

It wasn’t just a kneejerk reaction to stay inside the Orom for longer than Zac initially planned. From what he’d gathered, the Orom would keep dragging poor souls to be filtered for over a week.

Even if Zac managed to escape, he would probably be dragged right back in. However, the Orom apparently moved with shocking speed most of the time, swimming through various dimensions just like its smaller brethren. It would be far better to escape while the beast was on the move since it would be gone in an instant, hopefully leaving Zac behind in some empty corner of space.

Traveling to Freedom’s End for half a day proved this place was full of opportunities. There were unique resources, and it was veritably teeming with old masters that he would normally never have the chance to interact with on a somewhat equal standing.

There was also the Wilderness, an optimal place for him to perfect his stances. Your power was fixed, but the beasts kept getting stronger the deeper you delved. The only way to push farther was to improve what you could do with the power you had, just like how that old man had easily knocked him on his ass earlier.

There were some powerhouses in this place that had been able to accomplish unbelievable things in the Wilderness with raw skill and tactics. There was still a lot of room for improvement in this regard, and Zac got the feeling working on his stances would also help him get closer to forming his last two Dao Branches.

Zac looked out across the settlement from the window of his temporary residence for another few minutes before he made his decision. He would follow his guts—stay behind for a while longer to recuperate and consolidate his gains. Then extract this place for all the benefits he could get his hands on before escaping.

As for the downsides, they didn’t much matter to Zac if he didn’t plan to stick around. He was safe from the first relegation, and he had enough resources to produce impressive improvements in case he was still around in three years for the shake-up.

However, this all hinged on his bloodline being able to help him break out of this space fish.

If that didn’t work, Zac was in big, big trouble. He wasn’t as smart or as knowledgeable as most of the other captives. He didn’t have a cultivation method to gradually push him forward, and he wouldn’t be able to simply meditate to make breakthroughs. His Void Energy was the only thing that gave him an edge.

If these kinds of people hadn’t managed to flee from this prison through conventional means, how could he?

But cultivating in this place for the long-term was out of the question. He’d gained a decent idea of the required advancements to be safe from relegation, and it didn’t look good. With new people being added every few hundred years, there was no settling down. In fact, the demands were so high, the average lifespan in the Orom World was just a tenth compared to the outside.

Monarchs were lucky if they could survive 100,000 to 150,000 years, a far cry from their natural lifespans. Hegemons would usually be relegated out by the time they turned 10,000 unless they managed to break through to Monarchy and get a boost of momentum. Of course, there were also innumerable examples of people suddenly finding themselves stuck, dying far earlier compared to this.

The reason was simple. After that initial burst of breakthroughs, their improvement slowed down, making them unable to compete with the new arrivals. Soon enough, the old were relegated, replaced by new faces who hadn’t yet expended their potential or momentum. Zac didn’t want to live in a desperate environment like this longer than he had to, but there was one more reason to escape.

After seeing the Contribution Shop and learning about the various places and benefits available, Zac had come to a simple conclusion—he wouldn’t be able to continuously progress in such an environment. He hadn’t encountered any real bottlenecks with his unique cultivation method so far. But in return, he required a lot of resources, no matter if you talked Dao, Levels, Soul, or Bloodline.

The Orom expected you to make most of your progress simply by cultivating, making use of the dense ambient energy and attuned zones. There were unique cultivation grounds in this world as well, but those places cost Purchase Points, and people only used them when they were at the precipice of breaking through.

Making breakthroughs would net him Contribution Points and the equivalent amount of Purchase Points, but he would have to spend far more resources for every breakthrough compared to what said breakthrough was worth.

The Wilderness wasn’t any help either. Since people’s attributes, including the Orom Attendants, were limited to 1,000 in the Wilderness, the beasts were just early to Middle E-grade over there. Even if Zac managed to slaughter half of what was out there, he wouldn’t get enough kill energy to reach Peak E-grade.

His fortune in the form of Nexus Coins was also almost useless here. Who’d take a System currency in a prison where there was no place to spend it? Besides, there were the harsh restrictions on trade that didn’t go through the Contribution Store. There had been occasions where late Monarchs had started hoovering up Nexus Coins when they were at the precipice of confirming their Dao, but events like that were extremely rare.

Luckily, Zac was disgustingly wealthy for an E-grade cultivator, which would keep him safe in the short run. However, his requirements would only increase. What currently felt like a mountain of wealth in his Spatial Rings, might not seem as impressive by the time he started looking to form his Cultivator’s Core.

Ultimately, Zac would enter a downward spiral, where his gathered resources were rapidly depleted while being unable to replenish them. Soon enough, he’d be broke, and would be relegated one step after another until he was culled.

And the mere process of reaching Hegemony was a problem. Ignoring issues like missing out on the inheritance trial back home, would he even be able to form a core in a place like this? He’d long since gathered a few missives that had methods for mortals to take that step, but it didn’t look too optimistic. The exact methodology differed, but the essence was the same.

You had to consume innumerable treasures, preferably containing the attunement of your path. From there, you’d use one method or another to extract the essence of the treasures, and push it into the spot where your core would form. Like that, you would add one layer after another while keeping constant pressure with arrays and Mental Energy, until something like a core formed.

It was technically possible for Zac to accomplish that here, though there were no facilities available that could aid him with the process. After all, the Orom didn’t swallow mortals, it focused on those with extremely high attunements. Zac was even afraid to commission the arrays he needed, in case it would result in him being purged.

Besides, Zac was reluctant to use the methods he had on hand. It was painfully clear that the methods he’d gathered so far were extremely basic. Their odds of success were abysmally low even for people with weak foundations. With so many different treasures making up the core, it would become unstable.

When connected to one’s pathways, the rampant energies would rip it apart before you had a chance to properly refine and strengthen it. For someone like him, Zac wasn’t even sure if it was possible.

Secondly, even if he succeeded, the result would be lackluster. The kind of core you formed with this type of method would be weak and full of imperfections. Most likely, you’d be stuck at early D-grade, unable to evolve the core any further. Zac’s plan had always been to find some sort of high-grade technique that worked for mortals, possibly through a System-reward, like how he got his Soul Strengthening Method.

If that failed, he would try to adapt the best one he could get his hands on, making it more suitable to his unique condition and the opposing elements of his path. After all, it wasn’t like he simply needed to form an ice-attuned Cultivator’s Core or something. He had to somehow cram Life, Death, and Conflict into the core without it exploding.

Perhaps Yrial had some insights considering his path of fire and ice, or Zac might be able to glean some solutions from the Realm Spirits in his Spatial Ring. He might even be able to figure something out with the help of the term Edgewalker, now that he knew he wasn’t alone. All of which required time and the ability to freely travel in search of answers.

Certainly, the prospect of being bottlenecked and killed wasn’t the only reason he needed to escape. Just the thought of being stuck inside the Orom as the world outside passed him by filled his heart with a sense of existential dread. Perhaps the people of Port Atwood would think he died during the Twilight Ascent, especially if they managed to find out about the collapse of the Twilight Harbor. Perhaps they would believe he abandoned Earth, turning his gaze toward a wider stage.

Zac quickly stabilized his mind before his thoughts spiraled out of control, and instead focused on what he could do. For now, he needed to recover himself to peak condition, so Zac spent the next five days stabilizing his body. He even decided to use 200 of his Purchase Points to use one of the High-grade facilities in Freedom’s End for two days.

It was a recovery room that used dozens of arrays and attuned energies to recover all sorts of wounds and ailments. As Murbot said, the Orom fed during congregations of fate, which usually meant war. A lot of those who were dragged here were already wounded, sometimes grievously so. The Orom was aware of this, and therefore provided services that would get its captives to quickly return to cultivating.

Zac’s wounds were pretty bad, but the room he used could even heal Peak Hegemons. The cracks in his soul were rapidly mended, though that was partly thanks to some of the items found in Aia Ouro’s Spatial Gem. The same was true for his wounds, though the lingering echoes of Chaos resisted the healing process.

Another thing the arrays were unable to fix was the hidden damage from overusing the energy of the Remnants. The spider, vein-like cracks on the upper half of his body were still there, though they were invisible to the naked eye. The array did at least help [Purity of the Void] shoo some of the foreign Daos from his body, and when he walked out of the healing chamber, it felt like he’d been on bed rest for over two months.

During his stay in Freedom’s End, he had seen one group after another being led here. His group was the largest one so far, with some of the others only having a dozen people. However, on the third day, a lot of Havarok warriors and undead Revenants arrived, staring daggers at each other.

Zac was shocked to learn that the Umbri’Zi Clan had declared war on the Havarok Empire, and fierce battles were currently taking place across multiple frontier sectors. He even spotted a couple of Draugr, though he noticed every single one had pretty diluted bloodlines, kind of like Nala who guided him through Twilight Harbor. He guessed Orom knew enough not to anger a clan like Umbri’Zi and left the true clan members alone.

Or perhaps it killed them all to hide any traces of what it had done.

On the third day, Zac had also made an extra trip to the Contribution Store and taken out all the various cultivation methods he’d gathered since arriving in the Twilight Harbor. Some came from those he had fought, others came from various sources. For example, there was a stack of old methods he found in the cave of the Beast King where he got his aura-hiding bracelet.

From there, he hurried to a nondescript mansion where a dozen cultivators were already lining up. Zac entered when it was his turn, and emerged with a smile thirty minutes later. The Information Crystals had all been sealed to block his prying, but how could that be a problem in the Orom World?

The man Zac visited was called Provedius, a middle-grade Monarch and a Jade Orom Attendant, surpassing even Murbot. He was also known as the greatest unsealer of the Orom World, and had effortlessly unlocked every single method Zac had gathered, with the sole exception of two of the crystals belonging to Uona and one of Aia Ouro’s.

Provedius had been unsealing stolen and looted missives for over 50,000 years in hopes of stumbling onto something that would provide the inspiration to break through his current bottlenecks. In fact, he had specifically come over to Freedom’s End for that very purpose. Even better, the only price he demanded for his services was that he was allowed to make a copy of any information he unlocked.

If he ever managed to get out of this place, he would probably have an exceedingly valuable heritage to base his faction on. Unfortunately, the Orom prevented Provedius selling any of the methods he’d gathered over the millennia, since that counted as selling outside goods. Then again, he probably wouldn’t have made the methods public even if he could.

Most people would be unwilling to sell techniques in a place where you competed in terms of progress. What if you sold a method that allowed your competitor to surpass you, forcing you into relegation?

As for the content of the Information Crystals Zac had unsealed, they were mostly useless. There were almost one hundred different cultivation methods, though it only felt worthwhile to put five or so in the Academy back home. It wasn’t that the others were bad, but there were issues with spreading your base too thin.

It was better to focus on a handful of paths, where the successive generations of Port Atwood could expand and add detail to the heritage. That way, they would also be able to form more coherent armies if needed. If Zac put the hundreds of methods he’d collected until now in the Academy, it would become too chaotic, and the odds of elites emerging would decrease rather than increase.

But there were a few Information Crystals that were quite useful to him, especially from Aia Ouro’s Spatial Gem. More than half contained a vast compendium of Arrays and inscription patterns, a good chunk supplementing the information he’d gained from Catheya. There was also a soul cultivation manual that seemed extremely powerful. It was called the [Thousand Lights Chapter], but Zac wasn’t sure a non-spectral cultivator would be able to cultivate it without making some pretty big modifications.

However, there was a lot of general information about soul cultivation attached to the method, which was helpful even for Zac and his [Nine Reincarnations Manual]. It delved deep into what a soul was, and how to utilize it as efficiently as possible. There was even a technique that couldn’t quite be considered a skill, but something he was keen on trying out.

It was called the [Thousand Lights Avatar], but it didn’t actually look like it required the [Thousand Lights Chapter] to work. It was a technique where you continuously extracted Mental Energy and your Dao from your soul and infused it into your spiritual body. In the beginning, it wouldn’t do much good, but after you had reached some success, you would see all kinds of benefits.

First of all, it would continuously strengthen the spiritual body, including one’s pathways, which was extremely useful as Zac neared the later stages of the E-grade where every node-breaking was fraught with danger. At higher grades, it could do even more miraculous things, such as performing spirit walks with your spiritual body.

For a spectral cultivator, it was pretty much a cloning technique.

At the highest stage, it would be a second life of sorts. If you got your soul destroyed in battle or cultivation mishap, you could reform a backup soul with your [Thousand Lights Avatar]. It would be significantly weaker compared to your original soul, but it was obviously far preferable to dying.

Reaching that state would take hundreds of years of effort though, and wasn’t something that could benefit in the short run. For now, all the general information on soul cultivation and soul evolutions were far more useful. While the comments were for a different heritage, they still added to his understanding of his own method.

After all, the version of [Nine Reincarnations Manual] he possessed was extremely terse, without any insights or experiences. Last time, he only realized mid-breakthrough how the first reincarnation actually worked. He wanted to be better prepared for the second round, and this might help him out.

As for the description in the [Nine Reincarnations Manual], it wasn’t much more helpful compared to the first one:

Refined by the seas of Life and Death, the soul returns to the Samsara. Continuous reinvention is at the heart of the Heavenly Law. From a singular unity, the multitudes of the Cosmos can be beseeched. From Eight Trigrams a system is formed, where the singular unity is supreme.

Nine Dharmas, nine Heavens, nine layers of the Abyss.

The cycle of Life and Death is the cycle of the Samsara and the pursuit of completeness.

Zac felt the clue lay in the second paragraph. But what did nine Dharmas, nine Heavens, and nine layers of the Abyss refer to? The number nine was central to his Soul Strengthening Method, and to the Dao itself, but it didn’t help him much in preparing for the second reincarnation. If there was some repeated process involved in the reincarnation, he would have to aim for nine revolutions to reach perfection.

And that was exactly what Zac was planning on doing.

34

A THOUGHT TO CHANGE THE WORLD

Apart from the compendium on arrays and souls in Aia Ouro’s Spatial Gem, there was also a good treasure compendium, along with descriptions of popular cultivation resources the Eidolon used. The special treasures the ghost had saved were listed as well, giving Zac a proper understanding of what he was dealing with. Unfortunately, the glass pane was related to crafting Illusion-based items, and thus useless for him.

However, both of the others were natural treasures with great effect on the soul. One would strengthen it, while the other purified it. Aia Ouro had probably saved them for when making a push to the D-grade, but now they’d become fuel for Zac’s second reincarnation. He was already somewhat confident his soul had reached the required levels before. But with this, he was almost certain.

Apart from the two treasures, most of Aia’s other items were geared toward soul cultivation. Many had similar effects as the treasures, only with lesser potency. Apparently, the Eidolon used sticks of incense rather than pills, which made things a bit difficult for Zac. He was afraid of wasting the efficacy with his corporeal body, so he simply started eating the sticks instead, ignoring the extremely acrid taste.

Five more days passed, and Zac saw how activity had started to die down in Freedom’s End. Some people had taken the opportunity to stretch their legs when the new batch arrived, others tried to scam them. But with the excitement all-but-over, most returned to their cultivation caves, while the new arrivals spread out across the Orom World.

Now, there was just a smattering of people walking down the streets of what almost looked like a ghost town. It wasn’t a surprise, considering most people in this world were Hegemons who usually spent years at a time in seclusion. The next time people would emerge was probably when the new products had been tallied and added to the Contribution Stores.

Seeing as his condition was way better now compared to before, Zac knew it was time to get started and find out whether his plans to escape would work. Zac hadn’t just rested and studied Aia’s soul missives over the past week. He also started planning his escape while scouring the city for intelligence on how harshly the Orom World was monitored.

As far as he could tell, the Orom didn’t care one whit about what went on in this place. It didn’t monitor its inner world at all by the looks of it, and simply let the attendants do the job while it passively reaped the rewards.

Even if someone escaped, it didn’t seem to care too much. If anything, the old captives expected the new arrivals to try various methods to escape. If someone actually figured out a way, good for them. Of course, any attendant who reported a missing person or an escape method would be awarded a bunch of Contribution Points.

Knowing this, Zac decided to perform a few experiments, and he left Freedom’s End heading due north. Traveling by foot was pretty inefficient, what with the restrictions and his inability to use [Earthstrider], but he still decided to walk between Freedom’s End and Samsara’s Edge. The two cities were pretty closely situated, with the Life-attuned areas neighboring the Nature-attuned zones.

There were even two unusually large mixed-meaning zones where cultivators could set up their caves.

Going by foot would take around two weeks, but it would allow him to get a better understanding of his surroundings. Unfortunately, it turned out his second sense coming from [Forester’s Constitution] was disabled as well as he walked through the forests, but it wasn’t like there would be a bunch of treasures waiting right at the edge of a city.

With the energy so dense and rife with Dao, treasures could certainly grow. Unfortunately, the people who’d been trapped in this world for millennia had essentially memorized all the hotspots and picked the Spirit Herbs the moment they matured. Many also liked to stake out small claims to grow herbs to supplement their cultivation or took up professions like inscriptions or alchemy to save on Purchase Points.

Days passed, and Zac reached a slightly dour stretch of woods with a clear depression of Cosmic Energy. It was a no-man’s-land between the attuned zones. All the zones in the Orom World were supported by gargantuan gathering arrays that concentrated the energy into smaller areas, which resulted in seams of lower-quality land appearing in-between.

This stretch was the worst for setting up cultivation caves or growing herbs, and the only time cultivators spent in these zones was when they passed through the area. Conversely, the middle-point of every zone was where the energy and attuned energy was the densest. That was also where the Orom Attendants set up their cultivation caves, and they were able to push people out with the help of their superior attributes.

But Zac wasn’t interested in the cultivation havens at the heart of the zones. In fact, he decided to travel by foot exactly because he wanted to reach this desolate place. He walked around for a few hours until he found a small mountain and dug himself deeper and deeper through the rock until he was over a hundred meters below ground.

At this kind of depth, it would be extremely difficult for cultivators at the surface to notice his activities, even if they chanced upon the area, which was perfect in case you planned on performing some clandestine experiments.

Zac looked around for a good while even after setting up the isolation array, but he eventually turned his attention toward the ring on his finger. At first, he tried to instill it with his Cosmic Energy, but the result was the same as before. There was an invisible barrier barring his path, and his Cosmic Energy turned completely turbid upon even attempting to activate the Spatial Treasure.

Next, he took a steadying breath before rousing his bloodline. He wanted to use his Void Energy to activate the Spatial Ring. At first, there was no response, but it wasn’t because of his plan being a failure. It was simply a bit difficult to control this elusive energy. If Cosmic Energy felt like a hard-to-control river that coursed through his body, then Void Energy was simply a vacuum.

How do you push nothingness into a Spatial Ring?

However, his eyes lit up after a few minutes upon seeing his hard work paying off. He’d been forced to expel a larger chunk of Void Energy, completely covering his right hand. That had been enough to trigger the ring, and his mouth turned into a wide grin as he took out a Supreme Nexus Crystal. Zac placed it on the ground and waited for over an hour, but there was no response.

Zac breathed out in relief before placing the item back in his Spatial Ring, fearing that putting an unauthorized item in the authorized Cosmos Sack might somehow be exposed. Next, he decided to take an even bigger risk and removed an offensive talisman. Even then, nothing happened, though Zac only kept it out for five minutes before hurriedly putting it back.

Five minutes was what it would take him to take out and finish one of his spare teleportation arrays. Seeing that he could take out a talisman that long meant part of his plan would work. Zac decided against actually activating a teleportation array though, afraid that doing so in the Orom World would spoil his only opportunity to escape.

Zac also took out [Verun’s Bite] for a moment and was relieved to feel its weight decreasing after sending a mental command to the axe. A fractal leaf from [Nature’s Edge] also appeared just fine, and Zac grinned when he felt the power the skill emitted. It was weaker compared to his full power, but it was definitely stronger than 1,000 effective Strength.

With this, he doubted anyone but Emerald Badges in the Orom World would be a threat to him if it came down to it.

All through the experiments, the prison seal had been completely inert. It didn’t look like it had any safeguards that scanned for energy output or spatial fluctuations in the vicinity. His bloodline completely circumvented its limitations, just like he’d hoped. Having confirmed his bloodline mostly worked in this place and what he could and couldn’t do, Zac didn’t waste any more time.

He immediately set off, heading toward the Life-attuned side. He wanted to find a place right at the edge of Life and Death to set up a cultivation cave, which would give him the best environment to perform his second reincarnation. The energy density in these seams was far worse compared to the central zones, but they were still better than most places on Earth.

Besides, there was that intangible quality of Dao in the air. That alone made the Orom World superior to most D-grade planets, no matter where inside the space fish you stopped to cultivate. As for the lacking density of ambient energy, Zac had more than enough crystals to create a terrifying Life-Death environment.

Soon enough, he left the desolate band between the zones of Nature and Life, and found himself in another lush forest a day later. Zac looked around with interest, and he felt the contrast between the two zones was quite illuminating.

Life and Nature were closely linked, to the point that a huge chunk of those who cultivated either, cultivated some sort of mixed-meaning Dao. He would personally have walked down that road as well with his Hatchetman class, if not for the Remnants changing his plans and pushing him down the paths of Pure Life and Death.

Therefore, seeing the difference between the forests helped him get a somewhat better understanding of the two peaks.

The forest rife with the Dao of Nature had filled him with harmony. Like every plant and tree had been connected, a part of a bigger whole. It was almost akin to the interconnectedness of the Dao of Karma, where the forest was as much one singular entity of massive power as it was millions of individual plants and beasts.

Cultivating the Dao of Nature would allow one to draw on that vast and ancient power, becoming one with the forest. It was to let the cycles of nature push one forward, cultivating in balance and tranquility.

The forest of life was a stark contrast to this concept. The feeling Zac got here wasn’t one of harmony, but rather one of chaos. Some trees towered toward the sky, drenching their surroundings in darkness, their trunks uneven from greedily absorbing the ambient life. Others were twisted and full of bulbous knots, the Divine Energy having resulted in weird mutations.

No two trees or bushes were alike, each one reborn into something unique from the Life Attunement. They had set off on their individual journeys, fueled by the endless possibility of life. Most journeys clearly ended in disaster judging by the hollow trunks and dead plants, but Zac saw how some of these failed creations were consumed by their neighbors or turned into vessels for parasitic plants.

It was a scene of constant and unpredictable growth, and Zac eventually took out a practice axe as his eyes glistened. The axehead danced among the foliage as the air whistled. Zac kept swinging his axe while moving forward, not one of his swings identical to the previous ones. The turbulent forest had resonated with his Evolutionary Stance, and he couldn’t stop himself from practicing it for a while.

He didn’t infuse any energy into the attacks, and neither did he imbue the weapon with his Dao. He just moved along the path, his attacks echoing the impression he got from the various trees around him. He didn’t know how long he was in this state, where he kept delving deeper into the heart of the Evolutionary Stance, urged forward by the ambient energy and the whispers of the leaves.

With each swing, he also got closer to his vision of the Branch of Life he wanted to form. It was finally starting to diverge from the Nature-heavy aspect he inherited from his Hatchetman class. But looking around, Zac realized he didn’t need to give up the imagery of a tree just because he wanted to walk down the path of Pure Life.

Life was everything, and anything could be Life. It represented endless possibilities, the spark that led to a river of events. It was—

Zac didn’t get any further as he suddenly felt a pressure weigh down on him, and his eyes flicked open just in time to avoid walking right into a person. He hurriedly took a step back, realizing the person he’d almost crashed into was some sort of tree person.

Or at least he assumed that. Half of her face looked human, except for the green hair and iris, but a transformation covered the other side. Skin was replaced by bark, and small twigs grew from her chin and eyebrows, sprouting small purple leaves. The woman almost made Zac think of a corpse that had been left to rot in a forest. But her aura was vibrant, much like the trees around them, though Zac felt he could sense a hint of something malicious beneath the exuberance.

The pressure she emitted was the same as his, though Zac still held some trepidation from her gaze. It wasn’t just the fact that she was no probably a Late Hegemon or even higher, but there was also something else. Meeting someone in this desolate stretch of forest was a poignant reminder that he just arrived in the Orom World, and there were probably a bunch of hidden rules and tricks he wasn’t aware of.

“A bit crude, but it has captured the essence,” the woman smiled, though the smile turned crooked because of the wooden side of her face. “I don’t recognize you. Are you part of the new arrivals?”

“Uh, yes,” Zac slowly nodded.

“Samsara’s Edge is that way,” the woman said and pointed to the right. “If you continue down this path you will reach my abode. I hope this little friend will accommodate me and take the long way around. A few of my experiments are approaching fruition.”

“Experiments?” Zac asked with confusion.

“Plants,” the woman explained. “I don’t want them to be impacted by your killing intent at the precipice of their metamorphosis. A thought can change the world, don’t you agree?”

“I guess?” Zac said with confusion. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t planning on intruding on anyone’s domain. Is there any way for me to make sure I don’t make this mistake again?”

“Normally, someone will extend their aura to warn you if they don’t want you to approach their arrays. Unfortunately, it seems you were a bit caught up in your axe to notice me,” she explained.

“Oh…” Zac coughed as he turned away. “Well, again. I’m sorry. Have a good day. Good luck with your experiment.”

Zac hurried away, making quick strides toward the city. The woman had been congenial enough, but her aura was a bit off. Zac couldn’t be sure, but there was a sheen of madness and despair hidden in her smiling eyes. Perhaps, she was on the edge of relegation. Who knew what someone in that position might do to someone she believed was messing with her final chance at breaking through?

The weirdly exuberant forest had turned oppressive after that encounter, and Zac increased his pace while keeping greater watch of signs of other cultivators. It still took him five days to reach Samsara’s Edge, at which point it almost felt like a weight had lifted from his shoulders.

The settlement was quite similar to Freedom’s End, though half the city was shrouded in the familiar turquoise haze of Miasma. Zac had to admit that the Orom was quite gutsy, daring to set up sections of Pure Death in its body. What if it spread, turning the beast into some abomination like the creatures you could still encounter in the Dead Zone back on Earth?

In either case, it wasn’t Zac’s problem, and he made a quick trip to the Contribution Store. Just like the clerk back in Freedom’s End had said, this store provided a few Life and Death-attuned treasures that weren’t available anywhere else. Zac spent another 58 points to purchase a few more items before leaving again.

Zac kept going straight through the city, heading down the main street which also acted as a demarcation between Life and Death. From there, he entered the Wilderness heading deeper and deeper for three full days before slowing down. He looked down at his map and could confirm he’d reached his destination.

He had traveled down the no-mans-land between Pure Life and Pure Death for the past week, and reached the spot right between the central areas of the two zones. This place was where the no-man’s-land was the thinnest due to the overflowing energy density, and Zac smiled when he felt the familiar clashes between Life and Death.

He spent the better part of the day looking for the perfect spot, and finally found something with potential. There was a small lake with rivers coming in from both zones, bringing with them attuned energies. A constantly churning haze covered the surface of the waters, but still, Zac entered.

Initially, he hoped to find an underwater cave to dry out, and wound up finding something better. There was a small island in the middle of the lake, completely hidden by the haze on the waters. Zac stepped back onto land, and the more he looked around, the more satisfied he became.

The ambient energy wasn’t as good as in the Twilight Chasm, but there were constant winds of either Life or Death coming his way as he stood at the shores. They were pure as well, far more so than the muddled concepts that had been crammed together into Twilight Energy. With some work, this place would become his paradise while remaining unusable for others.

Zac walked across the island a few times before coming to a decision. The ground was soft sand, making it too annoying to set up a proper cave. There wasn’t much point in undertaking that kind of job for a temporary abode, so he simply covered the whole island in an illusion array and isolation array.

From there, he added the cultivation arrays, though he swapped out the gathering and purity arrays with a portable arrangement he brought from Port Atwood. Their quality wasn’t necessarily better than the Elementary Array Kit, but they were more suited for his purpose—to gather and agitate Life and Death to complement his cultivation method.

Finally, Zac cut down a couple of trees and fashioned a simple cabin, and he placed it in the middle of the island. It was extremely crude, with just a bed in a side room and a prayer mat in the living room. But it would serve his purposes. He spent the next few hours making sure everything was up to par, which led him to also add a second line of arrays to cover the whole lake, just in case.

Of course, the odds of someone crossing this particular segment were far lower compared to most areas in the Orom World. No undead would willingly leave their Miasmic zone to enter an area that was essentially poison to them. The same was true for people cultivating Pure Life, or finding inspiration for their mixed-meaning Daos in the Life-attuned zones.

With this many layers of arrays, it would be impossible even for Emerald Attendants to spy on him. Only the Orom should be able to peer inside, but that was a risk Zac would have to take. With that, Zac returned to his cabin before taking out another array disk. This time it wasn’t a protective array, but rather the disk needed to practice the [Nine Reincarnations Manual].

He had investigated what needed to be investigated. Had healed what needed to be healed. It was time to start working on his breakthrough so he could earn some points and treasures before getting out of here.

35

THE FIRST CLUE

Zac shook his head with some helplessness as he pushed his makeshift raft across the lake. He’d been so full of purpose as he sealed himself on his little island a month ago, yet he found himself leaving without having accomplished what he set out to do. But who could have expected it would take over a month to fully digest those two soul treasures that Aia Ouro left behind?

At first, the energies the items contained simply floated about in his Soul Aperture, but he quickly found that each cycle of [Nine Reincarnations Manual] had infused a little bit more of the energies into his Soul. Absorbing the treasures worked in his human form just fine, but he came to understand the effect was better when he was drenched in Death.

Therefore, he had spent most of his time in his Draugr form to get the most out of the items.

This was something Zac had decided on since long ago. He would have to use his Specialty Core in this place. No matter if it was to break the prison seal on his left arm or for escaping, Zac would need to use everything in his arsenal. Furthermore, people were restrained in this place, to the point they shouldn’t be able to glean anything from him even if the array in his body wasn’t active.

The good news was that the prison seal didn’t seem to notice anything amiss when transforming, and neither the Orom itself nor one of its Attendants came running to inquire what the hell was going on. The bad news was that changing race and inner energy didn’t break or weaken the prison array.

He was just as sealed in his Draugr form as his living one.

At least the situation allowed him to freely cultivate his soul over the past month. It might have taken longer than expected to fully infuse the medicinal efficacy into his soul, but the effect was stellar. Altogether, his Soul Core had grown in size by over 10%. More importantly, Zac felt it had reached some sort of limit, prompting the leftover energy of the first treasure to be absorbed by [Spiritual Void].

The cleansing treasure also managed to expunge impurities he didn’t even know he had, just like when he’d taken that lava bath. A lot came from eating all that grass down in the Twilight Chasm, but he also sensed hidden energy from all kinds of encounters, from Aia Ouro’s soul attack to tribulation lightning.

As proof of his progress, he’d gained 68 Contribution Points during his cultivation session, just from his soul becoming stronger. He felt ready to take that next step, but one thing held him back. Soon, two months would have passed since being trapped in the Orom World, and it was about time for the new stock to appear.

It was a huge event where people had saved their Purchase Points for centuries in hopes of finding something that would help them break through their bottleneck. It was like Black Friday in space, where everyone would rush to purchase items before they were snatched by someone else. The competition for items that suited him wouldn’t be in very high demand, but there were still some cultivators at the E-grade and early Hegemons to compete with.

Furthermore, there were the second-string cultivators who would also get a chance if he waited too long.

Zac planned to make this trip after undergoing his second reincarnation and use his newly-collected Contribution Points, but how could he possibly take that step with the whispers of treasures causing his mind to stray every five minutes? Now that he’d completely absorbed the soul treasures, he’d decided to make the trek back to Samsara’s Edge and check out the wares.

The trip was uneventful, but the same couldn’t be said for the settlement when he finally reached it after a couple of days. Samsara’s Edge was slightly larger compared to Freedom’s End, yet it didn’t feel empty at all. There was an unprecedented hustle and bustle, with constant foot traffic up and down the streets.

Unsurprisingly, the people were mostly a mix of undead and cultivators emitting vibrant auras, though Zac was surprised to see quite a few monks among the living who didn’t exactly emit the aura of a life cultivator. Had the Orom snatched up cultivators from some clash between the Buddhist Sangha and the Undead Empire a few thousand years ago?

It was the first time Zac had seen so many Buddhist cultivators in one place. The Buddhists had a small presence in the Zecia Sector, but he hadn’t run into a single one during his travels. Just like Catheya said, the Buddhists generally cultivated in seclusion, which made their methods unique in a sense.

Most cultivators were forced to continuously seek out lucky encounters to progress on their paths, but numerous monks never left their temples. Zac had no idea how something like that was possible, though he suspected there had to be some drawbacks to such a method. All cultivation had to adhere to the Law of Balance, and if they could continuously progress without outside help, there had to be something they were forced to give up in turn.

Suddenly, a monk turned around, having sensed Zac was staring at him.

“Amitabha, Benefactor,” the monk smiled as he slowly walked over. “Is there something amiss?”

“Uh,” Zac coughed. “No, I was just thinking about something.”

“Benefactor is unfamiliar to me,” the monk said. “Is Benefactor perhaps a new arrival? If Benefactor has any advice, this poor monk will be happy to listen. Lasting peace and the holy life are discovered through new friendships.”

“I’m not experienced enough to dish out advice. It’s just… I was once a progenitor,” Zac said, figuring he might as well ask something that had confused him for a while. “From a sector without a strong Buddhist presence. Yet there were monks looking just like you, long before we were integrated.”

“So, it was like that,” the monk nodded. “All is one, one is all. The hymns of the Akaniṣṭha are the hymns of the Cosmos. Anyone can listen in and gain enlightenment.”

“They’re a poison of the heart, a plague on the Multiverse,” a snort emerged from behind, and Zac looked over with surprise.

It wasn’t an undead cultivator, as Zac anticipated by the voice’s cadence, but rather a dour-looking human who emitted a strong aura of decay. “The Buddhist Sangha is corruption. It is the death of self. The more they ensnare with their gospel, the stronger their mountains grow. And with the things they control…”

The monk only smiled. “Amitabha, Buddha’s love reaches all. But a heart needs to be open to receive the love.”

“You are one of the new E-grade brats, right?” the necromancer said, ignoring the monk and instead turning his gaze on Zac. “Be careful of spending too much time around monks. They’re natural pathbreakers, destroying everything to fuel their own enlightenment. If you’re not careful, you’ll turn into an empty vessel, endlessly reciting sutras to empower their Śakra. If they’re left unchecked, one day the Immortal Buddha will open his eyes, and that is when we all fall.”

After that, the dour man grunted with disgust and walked away, heading for what looked like a temporarily set-up restaurant.

“Benefactor must excuse my old friend,” the monk said with a smile. “We were brought here at the same time, and we carry a shared fate.”

“That’s fine,” Zac said. “It was just a stray thought I had upon seeing your familiar clothing.”

“Then, I hope Benefactor finds what you’re looking for,” the monk nodded. “And remember, while one’s flesh can be fettered, the mind will always be free. It is never too late to turn back from the sea of bitterness. We always welcome discussion into the path.”

Zac nodded, and he watched the monk slowly walk away, his thoughts swirling. He remembered Catheya having mentioned a bunch of Mountains and Temples, with the One Paradise standing at the top. Then this monk had in turn mentioned Akaniṣṭha, which Zac believed was one of the Divine Realms of Buddhism.

Did that place contain something that could send out the Dao of Buddha or whatever to all corners of the Multiverse, enabling monks to start sprouting up even on unintegrated worlds? What had that kind of power? Was it the result of some supreme being at the peak of the A-grade practicing their Dao?

Or perhaps one of those Eternal Heritages that Qi’Sar mentioned? Considering the Buddhist Sangha was one of the most powerful factions in the Multiverse, it stood to reason that those people controlled at least one such heritage.

Even more worrying were the warnings of the necromancer. By his words, the Buddhist Sangha sounded pretty dangerous, no matter if you talked about forced conversion or the Buddha himself. However, Zac wouldn’t take something like that at face value, especially not from someone who clearly had a grudge with the monks.

Still, the warning made him a bit leery about the smiling monks around him as he headed toward the exchange.

There was a large gathering already waiting outside, but it didn’t look like the new stock hadn’t arrived just yet. In fact, the doors to the Contribution Store were closed, something that wasn’t ever supposed to happen. Zac also spotted a couple of clerks standing by the entrance, and he walked over after some thought. The moment Zac walked up to the closest one, she wordlessly handed him a talisman with a bow.

“What’s this?” Zac asked as he accepted the item.

“With the high foot traffic around these times, the Orom has long instituted a queue system to avoid any issues. When the talisman lights up, you have ten minutes to enter the Contribution Store. After that, you have up to 30 minutes to peruse and purchase the new items. No one else is allowed to enter over the next two weeks,” the clerk explained.

“So, all these people will be before me?” Zac grimaced.

“No, it is random. Though higher-ranked citizens do have an advantage,” the attendant smiled. “But perhaps your Luck will pull through.”

“Alright, thank you,” Zac nodded and walked away.

He didn’t have much else to do, so he made the rounds through Samsara’s Edge, listening to the discussions and looking at what kind of cultivators had chosen paths related to Life or Death.

Zac was also surprised to find himself at the center of some attention, even among undead cultivators. It wasn’t anything bad though. It was mostly people throwing out an olive branch with vague promises for exchanging pointers. Zac didn’t understand it at first, but soon enough, a Peak-stage Hegemon explained it.

There was definitely some truth to Murbot’s explanation about the E-grade cultivators that the Orom passed through its filter. There were multiple examples of young elites crashing through the grades in the Orom World, their terrifying momentum generating a positive cycle where they got access to better and better cultivation resources and cultivation grounds.

However, there was one more reason the E-grade cultivators got some attention. Members of the younger generation were the most likely people to get picked up by someone on the outside. It wasn’t a surprise, considering any E-grade cultivator a Primordial Beast found interesting was more likely to come from some powerful faction with Autarchs.

Of course, most E-grade cultivators didn’t belong to either of those two groups, but they had good odds of becoming high-level Attendants as well. In either case, there was no harm in doing some networking, considering it could help them out down the road.

Zac wasn’t the greatest conversationalist, but he managed to get to know quite a few Hegemons over the next few days, and his vision was greatly broadened. Turns out, most people staying in the surroundings didn’t cultivate Pure Life or Death like he was, but rather swapped between sectors in hopes of sparking new insights.

A few didn’t cultivate Life or Death at all, instead absorbing themselves in a foreign Dao for a while in hopes of finding inspiration, just like the Orom was doing by the looks of it. Zac passively stored away any information he could glean from the discussions, until one day he stumbled onto something extremely important to him.

“I’m sorry, did you say Six Profundity Empire?” Zac exclaimed as he looked at the Revenant with shock.

“That’s right, why?” she asked, clearly a bit surprised at Zac’s strong reaction. “Why, are you from there? Don’t worry, past grudges don’t matter in this place.”

“No,” Zac said with a shake of his head. “I just heard it’s an impressive empire. My ancestor visited it once.”

“Oh?” Lorna exclaimed, her eyes widening a bit. “Your ancestor was an explorer?”

Zac knew what she was driving at. She surreptitiously tried to inquire whether his ancestor was someone capable of travel between empires, which would make them a powerful Monarch at the least, possibly even an Autarch.

“Something like that,” Zac smiled. “Could you tell me more?”

“Well, the Six Profundity Empire is a decent strength A-grade force of Daoist Origins. It is not quite at the level of the Undead Empire, but it does have some connections to the Buddhist Sangha, while also being a core member of the Star Alliance,” Lorna explained. “Our contact with them is mostly on the battlefront.”

“Where is this empire located?” Zac asked, elated to finally find some clues to Kenzie’s whereabouts. “And what’s the Star Alliance?”

“The Six Profundity Empire claims a stretch of the Cosmic River and its surrounding areas. The Star Alliance is a group of empires that have banded together to protect their interests against larger enemies,” Lorna said. “The Undead Empire doesn’t have any direct contact with them, but some sects of theirs occasionally join in on crusades against us when they’re looking for bloodshed to temper themselves.”

Zac asked a few follow-up questions until he believed he had a decent understanding of where that huge empire was located. It was hard to get a proper grasp of locations in the Multiverse, considering it was mostly specks of activity surrounded with vast chasms of nothingness. But hearing Lorna explain it, it didn’t seem completely impossible for him to reach.

He could set course for some sector controlled by Buddhist Sangha, and find his way from there. Or, he could head in the general direction of this Cosmic River Lorna mentioned, which was like a streak of unusually fertile cultivation grounds that stretched for an insanely great distance.

Worlds inside this river would all have greater energy densities than normal, and the Dao was pretty clear as well. There were even some sections of the river that had turned into impossibly large formations that prevented even Autarchs from forcing their way inside, making it amazing cultivation grounds shielded from the outside world.

If he didn’t want to go through the Buddhist Sangha, he could instead cross the Undead Empire in his Draugr form. If members from the Six Profundity Empires sometimes joined the Buddhist Sangha in their crusade against the empire, they should be somewhat closely situated to the warfront that the Eternal Clan was responsible for.

Of course, either of those options was absolutely impossible in his current state, not counting being held prisoner at the moment. Even if he managed to escape, there was still no way for him to make his way there. He would have to either find a series of wormholes, or somehow get teleportation tokens High-grade enough to teleport through the whole Multiverse.

But those things were beyond rare.

He’d hoped to get his hands on a few teleportation tokens in this place, but it looked bleak. Tokens had a maximum radius, and most only worked within a single sector. The better ones, like the one he got for Twilight Harbor or the one that would take him to the Yr’Vanadium Sector of the Radiant Temple, could pass through a couple of sectors. But that was it.

The distance between Zecia and the Six Profundity Empire was most likely tens of thousands of times greater compared to the one between Zecia and the Twilight Harbor, and he might even die of old age during transit if he didn’t use a higher-tier teleportation array. As to how Leandra was planning on traversing such a shocking distance, he guessed peak Technocrats had their own methods not bound by the rules of the System.

Zac eventually nodded in thanks and accepted a sealed message from the Revenant to her clan before moving on. She was a member of the Undead Empire, and if given the chance, he’d send word of her situation to her descendants. A while later, Zac sat down and started meditating while waiting for the treasures to arrive.

And after three days of meditation, Samsara’s End was lit up with activity as the first batch of cultivators were called to the Contribution Hall.

36

DEPTHS OF DEATH

Unsurprisingly, most of the fifty cultivators who were called first were high-grade Attendants, with the majority sporting insignias wrought from white jade. Jade was the stage between Gold and Emerald, with bronze being the lowest tier.

Except for citizens such as himself, of course.

Zac knew that most of these cultivators were Monarchs, and he imprinted every single face to memory, making sure he wouldn’t accidentally annoy one of these people in the future. However, as he memorized their appearances, he noticed something surprising.

“Why are there no Emerald Badges here? There should be some in the area, right?” Zac asked a neighboring cultivator. “I figure those people would be the most motivated to find some items.”

“Emerald Badges can teleport to a private town with the help of their tokens,” the man sitting next to Zac explained with a face full of envy. “They don’t need to make the trek to the cities. Besides, I hear the best items don’t leave Liberty Point, making it pointless to head over here.”

“Oh,” Zac nodded his understanding.

It looked like Murbot wasn’t kidding around when talking about the benefits of becoming an Attendant. The best items weren’t even released to the public cities. That wasn’t the only benefit Emerald Badges had from what he’d learned over the past days. Emerald Badges could actually avoid up to five relegations.

It was a small concession by the Orom in hopes that they’d manage to break that final threshold and provide a huge burst of insights. Conversely, Jade Attendants got one freebie, while Gold Attendants and lower had to live in constant fear of relegation just like everyone else.

Thankfully, Zac’s Luck pulled through, and he didn’t have to wait more than a few hours before his talisman lit up. He immediately entered the Contribution Center and sunk his attention into the stock after nodding at the clerk.

Staggering volumes.

There was simply a shocking number of items added to the Contribution Store. The number of unique treasures had multiplied over one hundred times over, and the stock of base cultivation resources had skyrocketed by at least five hundred times. Some materials, like basic Cosmic Crystals, had their supply increased thousands of times over.

Zac couldn’t even begin to estimate the value of all these items, and this was only what was available to common citizens such as himself. It was a testament to just how many resources the Orom World went through in over five hundred years. Even more shocking was the fact that over 95% of the resources the Orom snatched didn’t even enter the Contribution Store.

Anything of middling or low-quality was somehow ground down and distilled into the pure energies that went into running the Orom World and feeding the Orom and its handful of descendants.

It was also obvious that a frantic shopping spree was already taking place, seeing as the listed stock was continuously dwindling on all kinds of items. The scene filled Zac with some anxiety, and he started scouring the list for anything that could either help with escaping or his cultivation.

Thankfully, the clerks hadn’t been idle over the past two months, and every single item had been analyzed and categorized, making it easy to find useful items. Zac didn’t find anything that would prove useful in a prison break, but he did spend a good chunk of his remaining Purchase Points on three sets of items.

The first purchase was two bottles of Pseudo D-grade Node-Breaking pills that seemed to even exceed the [Aethergate Pills] he’d bought in the Twilight Harbor. They were called [Stellar Enkindling Pills], and there were altogether ten inside each bottle. As long as his pill immunity didn’t reduce their effect too much, these would be able to help him push through most of the High E-grade.

Since the pills were made for E-grade cultivators, the two sets of Peak-quality pills only cost 80 Purchase Points, which was nothing compared to the items meant for Hegemons or Monarchs. They were also made for the living rather than undead cultivators, which decreased the likelihood Zac would already have built up a natural immunity to the materials that went into them.

Secondly, Zac purchased a chunk of an interesting material he’d never heard of before—[Spiritual Ice]. But it wasn’t meant for his soul cultivation. Its only apparent use was to temporarily freeze and harden one’s spiritual body. At the surface, it didn’t seem very useful, especially since it apparently turned your mind extremely turbid. But it did have one interesting ability.

As it froze you, it also made your body and mind more durable, allowing you to lessen the impact of a node bursting. Seeing as it didn’t seem to clash with his other preparations, he figured he might as well get it, as he would soon start going for the nodes in his head. The more protections he could layer for that step, the better.

The third item was an unnamed Peak E-grade natural treasure containing both Life and Death, quite possibly a treasure that some poor soul had found in the Twilight Ocean before being culled. It didn’t have any direct uses listed, but Zac figured it might come in handy when forming his core in the future. Besides, with its wild and untamed energy and its unknown use, it only cost 120 Purchase Points, making it a steal.

There were hundreds of other items he really wanted, many of which he had never heard of but possessed marvelous effects. There were unique treasures that could improve affinities, strengthen souls, awaken bloodlines, and form constitutions. There were even items that contained Dao Impartments. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.

But Zac was like a beggar that stared through the window to some luxury store, the wares inside far beyond what his wallet could handle. Altogether, he’d spent just over 250 Purchase Points, leaving him with 468. The more marvelous treasures that he spotted cost over ten thousand points, and there were even some scaling over one hundred thousand.

Did that mean the items the Emerald Attendants kept for themselves were priced in the millions?

Having completed his goal, Zac left the Contribution Store and set course for his private island in a hurry. He didn’t bother buying any crystals, herbs, or cultivation methods put for sale, considering he had more than enough of those kinds of things in his Spatial Rings.

He’d already been eager to return to his cultivation before, but now there was an additional reason.

Most of the treasures were out of his reach, but he had set his sights on one particular Supreme-grade treasure that he might be able to snag. There was a Death-attuned item with a similar purpose as the [Eye of Har’Theriam]. Unfortunately, it cost over six thousand Purchase Points, far beyond what he could currently afford.

Zac wasn’t sure whether there were any undead E-grade cultivators apart from him who were able to make use of that thing, but if there were, then it had suddenly turned into a race for Purchase Points. If not for the fact that the items he purchased were cheap and of extremely limited quantities, he wouldn’t even have bought them.

But Zac hoped the items would allow him to gain a couple of levels in one go, recouping the cost of the pills and then some.

Having talked with the older captives for a few days helped him gain a better understanding of what to expect in terms of Contribution Points. A general rule of thumb in this place was that you’d get Contribution Points equivalent to the number of raw attribute points your breakthrough provided.

So, if you formed a Dao Seed, you’d get 15 Contribution Points, whereas forming a Dao Branch might grant you something like 2,500. However, that was just a general rule, and the Orom could award anything from half to three times the points dependent on how useful the brands deemed the insights.

Thankfully, breakthroughs that provided no attributes could still provide points, sometimes even more generously than Daos. Soul cultivation was such a topic, and the Orom seemed very interested in that aspect of cultivation, to the point that Mentalists often were among the most long-lived people in this place.

The points Zac got before were just a small incentive to keep pursuing the path, but a big payoff was hopefully waiting for him after his reincarnation. Even if he couldn’t afford the treasure that could find and open Hidden Nodes right away, he would hopefully be able to use his sales quota to convert some of his less useful treasures to Purchase Points. Unfortunately, it turned out that each Attendant rank and grade had sales quotas of their brought-in treasures.

It was a small safeguard to prevent wealthy, but otherwise unimpressive, prisoners from converting mountains of common cultivation resources into enough Purchase Points to snatch a bunch of extremely valuable treasures. Some things were hard to find even for the Orom, and it wanted the best treasures to go to the most talented cultivators, just like how a sect worked.

Besides, the conversion rate was just atrocious. He had seen just how stingy the arrays were when he offered up dozens of Cosmos Sacks.

Making actual breakthroughs was his only way to get it, and he was determined to buy it before anyone else. Since opening his [Quantum Gate], Zac had made it a primary goal to try and open up new nodes on his Draugr side. Considering they were considered a divine race among the undead, their Hidden Nodes shouldn’t be anything to scoff at.

Even if he had teased Catheya a bit about her nose, it was a pretty amazing ability. Not only had it exposed his true nature in the Tower of Eternity when everyone else was none the wiser, it also proved extremely useful when exploring. While a treasure nose was useful, Zac hoped he would be able to get a node that improved his combat strength, either in defense or offense. After all, out of the four nodes he’d opened so far, only [Spiritual Void] could help him in battle.

The surroundings turned to a blur as Zac rushed back to his island. Soon enough, he reached the lake that had turned into his temporary home, and he passed through the barriers to reach the island. The ambient energy had turned even denser since he left, a result of the arrays still building up the environment by siphoning energy from the surrounding waters.

Zac rested for a couple of hours to stabilize his mind before he took out the first of the array disks. It was time.

The hours passed as one revolution replaced another, and he found himself steeped deeper and deeper into a deathly abyss. Each revolution was imbued with the Fragment of the Coffin, and each revolution increased the ferocity of the black ocean in his mind. Eventually, Zac finished the seventh cycle, and his face was pallid, covered in Death-suffused sweat from the pain in his mind.

Even back in the Twilight Chasm, his soul had reached the level of strength needed to empower six revolutions with his Daos without harming himself. Back then, he would have managed to empower the seventh cycle too if he really pushed himself, yet he found himself struggling at this same level almost a year later.

On the surface, it looked like he’d barely improved, but Zac knew the situation wasn’t as simple as that. Since finishing his eight-month cultivation session in the Twilight Chasm, his two soul oceans had undergone a drastic change. First, they were transformed and empowered in the valley when he was steeped in Life and Death. The concepts stored within the oceans had more than doubled, which also meant the storms they kicked up during cultivation had doubled in ferocity.

Next, the oceans were infused by the Remnants. The shard had stayed for months in his Soul Aperture, but the real transformation of the oceans took place when he formed the Glimpse of Chaos. Torrential amounts of Oblivion and Creation had been squeezed out of the Remnants and dragged through the oceans before they entered the pathways on his shoulders.

The two oceans had even been marked by Chaos when he circulated those two slivers of Chaos through his body. Perhaps, that had been the biggest factor behind the shocking and unpredictable storms that were kicked up every time he cultivated.

At the same time, his soul had gained a lot of power after the chasm. Surviving all kinds of trials and tribulations could strengthen one’s soul just like it led to breakthroughs in one’s Dao. And Zac wasn’t lacking in tribulations, no matter if looking to the mysterious light that infused his soul, the actual tribulation lightning, the storm of Oblivion that forcibly empowered his soul, or the benefits of forcibly sealing a Shard of Creation for months.

Along with the marvelous treasures left by Aia Ouro, his mental strength was many times greater compared to when leaving the Twilight Chasm. Without that, he probably wouldn’t even have managed to last five Dao-empowered cycles with how his oceans looked. If anything, seven revolutions right now most likely eclipsed the difficulty of performing nine Dao-empowered revolutions with normal soul seas.

That brought a question of its own. Was he ready to undergo a reincarnation or not? His Soul Core had pretty much reached sublimation for what the method allowed. He could sense the benefits were minuscule compared to the difficulty of finishing a revolution. But at the same time, he worried the powerful oceans would increase the difficulty of his breakthrough, which spoke for empowering his soul even further.

These thoughts plagued Zac over the past month as he slowly digested the two soul treasures, but he didn’t want to wait any longer. The faces full of desperation and hope in Samsara’s Edge urged him on, reminding him of what was at stake. This was ultimately a prison, one that he needed to get out of. He couldn’t get complacent and let his momentum stall or he’d never seize the opportunity to escape.

This was the one.

He had a better understanding of the process, and a broader knowledge of the soul in general. He had dozens of Spatial Rings containing innumerable treasures that he could take out if necessary. He even had Cosmos Crystals attuned to Life and Death that could unleash an unprecedented storm of energy if need be.

The cost of a single one of those crystals could bankrupt a hundred E-grade elites, yet he had more than a hundred of each kind. He lacked for nothing, and only the fear of crushing his soul once more held him back. But no longer.

Zac forcibly shook his mind awake before it was claimed by the deathly chill. Shortly after, an imposing will pushed down on the deathly ocean as he contained some of the Chaos brought from the seventh infusion. The next moment, his Dao Avatar on top of the Soul Core turned into its Draugr form before spewing out a storm of deathly Dao as Zac opened the gates to [Spiritual Void].

The stored-up Dao joined the faltering stream from the hanging coffin before they dragged the already deathly Mental Energy into the array disk for an eighth revolution. As he was drained, Zac rapidly lost control over the churning waters in the pitch-black ocean, but could only grit his teeth and withstand the waves crashing into his Soul Core.

The minutes passed, until finally, a storm of even stronger Death poured back from the array and into the ocean. A deep rumble echoing through his Soul Aperture made Zac’s nose bleed, but he kept going, using the same solution as he had during the first reincarnation. Two months had passed since getting trapped, which was enough to stockpile quite a bit of Oblivion Energy.

He forcibly squeezed the entrenched energies from his soul, pouring them into the array disk along with the last scraps he could squeeze from the hanging coffin. Zac hurriedly crushed a few Soul Crystals, but the energy that entered his mind was like a few drops of rain in a parched desert. With a puff, it was gone, only providing minimal relief as Zac started the ninth revolution.

Zac didn’t know if a second had passed or a century. Time had no meaning to Death, and his consciousness had come as close as humanly possible without crossing that threshold. He had no wants, no desires. He’d melded with the nothingness, a small spot of darkness in the raging sea of the Abyss.

He was Death.

A small ripple broke the illusion, and Zac found his utterly drained soul flicker awake as the final cycle was completed. His energy came crashing back like an icy river, pushing the deathly darkness of the ocean to perfection. The rumble was even greater this time around, and it almost felt like the Heavens had been summoned to his Soul Aperture as dark clouds formed over the raging sea.

However, these clouds were pitch-black, mirroring the waters below. They were vapors of Pure Death. And their mere aura caused small cracks to spread across Zac’s Soul Aperture. Zac found himself slipping into that soothing darkness again as the storm in his mind reached cataclysmic proportions, and he hurriedly sent a mental command into his Specialty Core.

He had pushed the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] beyond its limits in its descent into Death, and it was time to form the counterpoint to his reincarnation.

37

PERFECTION

A ripple passed through Zac’s Duplicity Core, and a few seconds later, another wave of Death spread through his body, almost fusing with the impossible volumes of unadulterated Death accumulated by the [Nine Reincarnations Manual]. The chill of Death was still there, as was the raging storm in his mind. However, it no longer threatened to consume his sense of self, to convert him into an unthinking Revenant.

Being Draugr was to be one with the Abyss, and the pitch-black ocean in his Soul Aperture was less than a shadow compared to the lake from which his race sprung. But that didn’t save his harried Soul Core from nearly drowning to the raging waters. The golden ocean was rapidly shrinking as well, unable to counteract the ferocious momentum from its nemesis.

Zac felt himself slowly losing control, until a loud snap startled him awake. It was the array disk in his hands that had cracked, unleashing a storm of unrelenting Death upon the area. The wooden cabin around him instantly rotted away and crumbled around him, but the energy didn’t spread too far.

It was somehow contained above him, no doubt a part of the array’s function to help with this final step. The churning clouds of Death were mesmerizing, and Zac felt echoes of the higher truths hidden within. However, he quickly refocused on the task at hand. Insights were good and all, but surviving this tribulation was even better.

He hurriedly took out the Life-attuned array disk and started up the second set of revolutions. He knew he was at the most precipitous state, and he desperately held on while the cycle began. As long as he could withstand this first revolution, the golden ocean would come to his aid in containing the deathly ocean.

Zac once more found himself in a state of limbo, where all thoughts were expunged except his desperate struggle to contain the chaos in his mind. The staunch willpower he’d nurtured through innumerable Life-and-Death encounters had come to his aid, turning into an indestructible wave breaker that kept his Soul Core just safe enough to withstand the surging tides.

Each second was agony, but he held on, refusing to give in to the abyssal ocean. And at last, a surge of warmth entered his soul as the first revolution finished and brought with it a wave of untainted life. The golden ocean roused itself, finally starting its counterattack to reclaim its lost ground. It was still not nearly as powerful as the churning black waters, but it was a start.

One revolution after another passed through the small disk in his hands. He was getting closer to a state of balance every minute, but Zac was forced to swallow Soul Mending pills like they were candy to prevent his Soul Core from crumbling prematurely. As he suspected, the war that raged by the time he finished the seventh cycle surpassed what the method called for.

His shimmering core was completely submerged, drowned by towering waves that slammed into each other.

Yet Zac pressed on, a sheen of madness glimmering in his abyssal eyes. He held it all together with a small film of Mental Energy and sheer will. Black veins stood out all over his face as he started the eighth cycle. It felt like an eternity, but finally, a crashing wave of Mental Energy full of vigor returned.

His whole Soul Aperture was veritably vibrating by this point, but he pushed on. There was no turning back now. Not only would it cause a tremendous backlash, but it would just make his future breakthrough more difficult. The energies crammed into his aperture had already surpassed what it could withstand, so what good would continued cultivation do? He needed to break through and increase the capacity of the tank.

Not to mention he’d already broken one of the array disks.

A sense of hollowness spread through his body as he extracted all the accumulated energy of Creation and pushed it right into the array. He let the disk do its thing while he used every ounce of will and remaining energy to simply stay coherent, to stave off the tendrils of life that were poison to his Draugr form.

Zac wasn’t sure his Soul Aperture would last the whole cycle no matter how strong his will was, and he desperately searched for solutions. Eventually, he could only swallow Soul Mending pills by the handful while pushing a huge amount of Miasma to his head, using it to pressure the aperture from outside to maintain a semblance of equilibrium.

Somehow, Zac managed to pull through, but he was still filled with trepidation as a storm of Life came rushing back into his mind. He was rapidly losing control, and a crack from the array in his hand unleashed a wave of Life into the surroundings, pushing the deathly clouds that still raged to the side.

It almost looked like the siblings to the clouds of [Rapturous Divide] had been summoned, and a war to match the one in his mind erupted all around him. It even started dragging the ambient energies of the whole area into its struggle, and the opposing Daos in the Orom World were more than willing to comply. Zac wasn’t surprised, and he could only hold on for dear life as the storms inside his Soul Aperture grew even more ferocious.

There was no ebb, only a flow that kept gaining momentum. The waves in his mind had grown so massive, they resembled mountain ranges. It looked like two tectonic plates had collided, with his Soul Core submerged deep in the heart of the chaos. Life and Death had taken the main stage of his soul, but a shadow of his third Dao played an important part.

The small avatar had already left its position on his Soul Core, and it kept dancing among the frothing waters. One moment it looked like a human swinging a golden axe, and the next it was an abyssal Draugr with an axe wrapped in chains. As it swung its weapons, the oceans answered like an army roused by a powerful general.

His world shook as the war raged on, and cracks spread across the domed sky. The storm reached a crescendo, and Zac found his consciousness twist as a crack echoed out from the depths of his mind.

A blast of pure mental destruction ripped apart the rotten shreds of his cabin before leveling the trees around him. Zac inwardly breathed out in relief that he hadn’t taken out the [Mind’s Eye Agate] for his breakthrough, seeing as its benefits came during prolonged cultivation sessions. It would have been a huge loss to destroy that amazing treasure so soon after getting it.

Zac’s perception expanded along with the unfettered wave of Mental Energy. It crossed the waters of the small lake, and cascading waves rose like soldiers answering a call. The mental wave kept stretching for hundreds of meters in each direction, a supreme presence lording over the no-man’s-land.

However, Zac’s nigh-omniscience didn’t last long. He found his expanded vision blur as his Mental Energy started to spin, forming a soul hurricane as it pulled back into his mind, bringing all the attuned energy in the area with it. First, the surrounding hills and rivers were drained of meaning, and a moment later, the lake shared the same fate.

Next came the mysterious clouds of Life and Death, kept together by some inscrutable markings Zac couldn’t quite make out. It was all dragged in by an unrelenting pull, and Zac screamed with pain as a tidal wave of Life and Death poured into his glabella. It was like a Heavenly spear cut through the two raging oceans before it slammed into his Soul Core.

The core was covered in cracks, and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Zac was beset by a soul-rending pain as his core exploded. Thousands of shimmering shards ripped through the ocean with unstoppable momentum, forcibly ending the war through mutual destruction.

The outburst of power completely destroyed the walls of his Soul Aperture, and there was suddenly no clear divider for his mind. Just like before he’d awakened his soul. However, instead of a murky ball of congealed energy, his soul now looked like a mottled ocean that stretched for miles in his mind.

The two seas had been reduced to a messy mix of gold and black, like two oils that refused to properly mix. The waters kept squirming from the proximity, but something kept everything in place—the innumerable shards. They’d become fixtures in the ocean, each one connecting a ball of water to it through some unknown means, either surrounding itself by Life or Death.

The scene was extremely chaotic, but it wasn’t completely out of Zac’s expectations. He’d known his soul would shatter like the last time, judging by the terse description of the process, and he already knew the solution. He needed to start gathering and fusing the broken shards before he died.

The problem was how. The second reincarnation was similar to the first, but there were also clear differences. Zac had hoped he would find some clues by this point, what to aim for. How should he fuse shards that had all been tainted, surrounded and marinated in a soup of Life and Death?

Were you meant to make a choice at this point, where living cultivators focused on the Life-marked Soul Shards, and the undead on the deathly ones? That way, you could form a soul better suited to your path. Except, that wouldn’t work for him, someone with two races and an equal focus between Life and Death.

Could he form two Soul Cores, one for each element? Would that ruin the method, which called for both oneness and the law of nine?

He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing, but he was also aware each second was precious at this stage. He could only start imposing his will on the shards, slowly arranging them by their respective elements. For now, he started at one corner of the ocean to see if his theory was correct, while maintaining some control over the rest of the waters, preventing it from dissipating.

Soon enough, the pockets of Life melded together, but Zac frowned when another problem cropped up—the shards refused to fuse like the last time. The golden waters were in the way, acting like some sort of insulation.

Was he supposed to mix Life and Death, after all?

He urgently redirected a couple of shards, but as expected, it worked even worse. If Life and Death mixed so easily, the fusion process would already have started up when the chaotic soup was created. Zac wracked his brain, desperately trying to match any piece of information he’d gathered over the past months with what he was seeing in his mind.

Suddenly, a snippet from Aia Ouro’s missives resurfaced.

While the ultimate goal of nurturing one’s soul is to empower it and allow it to become a greater extension of your will, the methods to accomplish this varies greatly. Generally, a distinction between Attuned and Unattuned Soul Strengthening Methods needs to be made.

The ultimate goal of the Attuned Soul Strengthening Methods is to remold one’s soul, to push it closer to your Path and your Dao. In terms of Body Tempering Methods, they will provide you with a constitution. Just as a fiery tempering technique might award its practitioner some manner of Fire Constitution, so can the fiery Soul Strengthening Method provide you with a soul attuned to fire.

The benefits of this should be clear for any practitioner of the Dao. An attuned soul will empower the matching Dao, just as the constitution will empower the matching skills. The drawback of this gift is the narrowing of one’s path. A Dao of a different peak will become harder to wield, and soul skills of clashing elements will become weakened.

From there, it had gone on to explain that most methods delayed the process of attuning one’s soul, as to not prematurely lock in users before they had confirmed their path of cultivation. But what if the [Nine Reincarnation Manual] differed from the norm, and already being at the second reincarnation meant for you to attune your soul?

If true, it directly clashed with Zac’s assumptions after reading that missive. It had also gone on to describe unattuned methods, such as the [Thousand Lights Chapter] and a few other methods. These methods didn’t provide an attunement to your soul, instead utilizing high-quality methods to make up for it by producing stronger souls that weren’t forced down a certain path.

It had also mentioned that even unattuned methods often used various Daos to improve their cultivation speed, and Zac had ultimately categorized the [Nine Reincarnation Manual] into this type of method. After all, while he steeped his Mental Energy in Life and Death, his Soul Core had stayed completely untouched by those elements.

But seeing the situation in his soul, he wondered if his understanding was flawed, and he focused on a random shard surrounded by a bubble of extremely Pure Life. He exerted his will, and he was filled with a mix of elation and trepidation that the exuberant energies entered the shard, indelibly marking it with Life.

The glee came from having found the path forward, while the trepidation came from the ramifications. Still, Zac couldn’t worry about the future and how an attuned soul would affect him. He could only put his faith in the System once more, hoping it hadn’t provided him with a method that would clash with him being an Edgewalker.

He spread his consciousness, and one bubble after another started shrinking. However, by the point the surrounding bubbles were absorbed to two-thirds, Zac met an insurmountable resistance. Zac panicked, but he figured it was a result of him overstuffing the oceans. Thankfully, a solution presented itself as the waters around the shards exploded, leaving puffs of attuned vapors.

Meanwhile, the explosions exposed glimmering Soul Shards hovering inside the haze.

Zac felt like his mind was about to split apart as he desperately imposed his will all over the place, trying to keep the uncontrollable ocean in check. Eventually, large pockets of shimmering gems floated in his aperture, half of them pale gold and the other turquoise. Their colors looked slightly diluted compared to the oceans, most likely because of the pristine white of his broken Soul Core.

Seeing that some chunks had been processed, Zac exerted tremendous pressure on the crystals, just like he had during the first reincarnation. Immediately, the pieces started to fuse, and the process looked a lot like previous time. As two crystals fused, a more condensed one was formed that was just slightly larger than before. In return, it emitted stronger energy, and its color was slightly deeper.

Having found the correct method, Zac got to work, fusing some parts while attuning others. He worked his way through the large space of his Soul Aperture like a conveyor belt until he encountered an issue. Two crystals had formed, one shimmering in gold like a piece of divine amber, while the other emitted the deathly chill of a Supreme Miasma Crystal.

They looked immensely powerful, either one of them more than a match for his previous Soul Core thanks to the enormous amount of energy added from the ocean, the accumulated energy of the array disks, and the torrential amounts of energy he’d swallowed from the surroundings. However, Zac could feel that they’d reached sublimation after only having absorbed a fraction of the shards of his soul.

He tried to forcibly squeeze more into the cores, but it was simply impossible. As he pushed one shard inside, another one was pushed out, maintaining equilibrium. His mind worked with lightning speed, for once utilizing the thousands of points in Intelligence he had racked up to confirm something.

“Nine,” Zac muttered, realizing that each attuned Soul Core contained exactly 729 shards, which was nine by nine by nine.

It definitely wasn’t a coincidence, and he stopped trying to force any more into the cores. Instead, he exerted pressure on some of the unattached crystals, and the familiar process started up once more. Two Soul Cores eventually turned to four, and four into six. Zac had no idea how much time had passed, but he was exhausted.

Worse yet, the protective bubbles around the remaining shards in his aperture had started leaking, the attuned waters turning into a haze as they slowly shrank. Thankfully, he’d already processed more than half of his soul, and had more than enough attuned energies to spare. Still, his vision was starting to blur and his speed was slowing down, so he threw an item into his mouth and kept working.

It was a mental stimulant found in Aia Ouro’s Spatial Gem, an item equivalent to a soldier pill for the mind. A surge of Mental Energy stormed into his aperture, immediately putting pressure on the remaining shards to speed up their transformation. Unfortunately, the energy was ‘unliving’ and not a true replacement to his own spirit, and it wouldn’t be able to replace any Soul Shards that were lost.

However, it did help to some degree, which was better than nothing. It gave him the strength to keep working and managed to buy enough time to form another set of attuned Soul Cores.

Four cores of Life shone like radiant suns, as they leisurely floated in his Soul Aperture. Meanwhile, four aquamarine moons emitted opposing energies as they formed a complex dance with their opposites. The scene was oddly reminiscent of the situation the Remnants found themselves in. However, Zac felt like these eight cores didn’t just restrict each other, but empowered each other as well.

They rotated in his soul like eight miniature celestial bodies, and his mind had changed from an ocean to a small corner of space. The oceans were partly gone, sacrificed in the formation of these marvelous Soul Cores. Remaining were just vast, hazy clouds in gold and aquamarine, nebulae shrouding this soul in mystery.

Zac could feel a connection between the cores, knowing he could draw energy from either one or all eight at once, depending on how much force he wanted to exert. They were separate, but they were also one. The total power they contained was amazing, but Zac wasn’t satisfied. After all, there were only eight of them.

Nine Dharmas, nine Heavens, nine layers of the Abyss. That was what the method called for, and Zac was still short of perfection.

Problem was, he’d run out of Soul Shards.

38

SINGULAR UNITY

Zac gazed at the eight shimmering orbs floating in his mind, urgently trying to figure out a solution for the final missing core. Soon, his attention turned to the clouds containing vast amounts of Life and Death-attuned energies. At first, he simply assumed the nebulae were leftover energies from the process. After all, his soul oceans had contained far more energy than necessary, so it made sense there would be some remaining.

But what if that wasn’t the case? Zac had an idea, and streams of Mental Energy emerged from the eight fully-formed cores. It felt so natural, so easy. Before, he could arduously control two streams to form his crude Dao braids. But now, he was actually controlling eight of them, though their movements were a bit stiff.

Still, that was enough for Zac’s purpose, and he made the streams catch large globs of nebulous dust before dragging it all toward one of the cores. It was one of the first two he’d formed, and Zac looked on as he drenched it in the two sets of clouds, prompting the familiar explosions to erupt.

It was like magnificent fireworks had gone off around the core, and Zac felt the immense pressure the explosions put on the core. The chaos continued for a few moments, and Zac’s brows furrowed as doubt crept into his heart. However, a small stream of shockingly pure light was eventually squeezed out from the heart of the core, its radiance almost blinding.

Zac’s eyes lit up, and he gingerly took control of the sliver, helping to drag it out from the core. He first planned on pushing the attuned clouds away, only to realize the clashes didn’t impact this pure string at all. It was his soul, condensed and refined to an unprecedented state. Some random Life-Death explosions weren’t enough to harm it even if it was just a thin string.

His instincts were correct, and it looked like the tendril knew what to do on its own. The eight attuned cores kept rotating in that mysterious pattern, and it was like they formed some sort of vacuum at the heart of it all. The scene made Zac think of a yarn winder.

He figured out the method to refine the cores one final time, but had a feeling that execution could still impact the end result. If he put pressure on just one core at a time, he would eventually form eight unconnected strings. Wouldn’t it be better to extract all eight strings simultaneously, allowing them to form a proper yarn?

Zac had spent years looking at the intricate patterns on the array disks of the [Nine Reincarnations Manual], and he was almost certain his theory was correct as he looked at the pattern of the eight outer cores. Zac didn’t quite understand the underlying meaning of their movements, but he sensed the same truths hidden in the clouds that sprung from the array disks.

The essence of the Soul Strengthening Method was hidden in that dance, and he needed to imprint that essence into the ninth and final core. Zac spread his consciousness, pushing his recently improved control to the limits as he rekindled the conflict between Life and Death throughout his soul.

As if sensing his desires, the avatar for his Branch of the War Axe that had been sitting in the middle of the circle stood up. It began its dance of conflict, swinging its axe as it kept swapping between incarnations. Wherever the avatar passed, the struggle was pushed to the next level.

Controlling so many clashes simultaneously was far beyond what he could normally manage, but Zac kept eating pills and incense sticks found in Aia Ouro’s Spatial Gem. The effect was getting worse and worse, but it was enough to help him maintain control of the process. Soon enough, eight pristine strings slithered toward the center of his soul, almost drawn together as though by magnetic attraction.

When they touched, a ripple spread out through Zac’s soul as his perception shifted once more. Before, he had already sensed the eight cores were connected, but that feeling was far more palpable now. He finally understood the true meaning of ‘From Eight Trigrams a system is formed, where the singular unity is supreme.’

The moment the eight strings connected, they entwined into a small knot that became more and more complex as it and the outer cores kept spinning. The newly forming core was the real center of his soul, and Zac felt the walls of his Soul Aperture reform around it.

The bigger the shimmering ball grew, the more space was crammed into his Soul Aperture. It was already multiple times greater compared to before, yet the ball kept growing. It almost felt like he was forming an inner world, although this wasn’t a true space like the one a Monarch formed.

It was rather his mind conceptualizing something intangible, a place where the line between thought and reality were blurred. But it was undeniable that the ninth core’s growth meant his soul was becoming more powerful. Of course, the price of the growth was that the eight outer cores kept shrinking, though their colors grew more and more intense.

In Zac’s opinion, it was a worthwhile trade, but nothing good can last forever. The oceans had left behind shocking amounts of energy, but the clouds were growing dim. No matter how much the Dao Avatar urged its surroundings to struggle, the eruptions grew weaker and further apart. Thankfully, the strings had stopped growing.

He’d reached a limit of how far he could condense the outer cores. They’d shrunk to a third of their original size, though emitted shockingly deep auras of Life and Death. The eight strings detached from the outer cores and were dragged into the inner core, which was now twice as large as the outer ones.

However, even with the esoteric patterns almost melding the eight strings together, they were still not perfectly fused into one core. Zac hesitated, then made his decision, and the treasure he just bought appeared in his hand. He had initially planned on saving this thing until he formed his Cultivator’s Core, but he couldn’t be picky at the moment.

He remembered all-too-well how the Soul Shards hardened during his last reincarnation, and he was seeing that exact same phenomenon in the central core. He needed a final push, and he placed the natural treasure against his forehead, hoping the suction would activate again.

It was a success, and the small vortex by his glabella opened once more, dragging torrential amounts of rampant energy from the treasure. During the last reincarnation, he’d used multiple treasures to perform a perfect reincarnation. This time, it hadn’t been needed so far, but that was only because he’d overdone things with the two oceans.

It was like two waterfalls came cascading down from the Heavens above. They slammed into the newly-formed core, where the Dao Avatar was already waiting. A final series of explosions gradually squeezed the inner core tighter and tighter, forcing it to shrink. It became impossible to tell there had ever been eight distinct strings.

It was now a radiant sun, far eclipsing his previous core in both size and density. The moment it formed, something snapped into place, and Zac was beset by an unprecedented state of clarity. Hundreds of thoughts rushed through his mind, seemingly unconnected impressions and insights forming a greater whole. It was all one.

Zac slowly opened his eyes, a wide smile plastered across his face. He’d done it—a perfect reincarnation.

His gaze alone caused ripples in his surroundings until the brand on his hand sprung to action. The sense of limitless power was subdued, his soul output restrained to what was permissible in the Orom World. He wryly smiled as he looked down at his hand.

He’d held onto a small hope that disintegrating his Soul Core, thus technically dying, would have tricked the brand into dissipating, but it didn’t appear the Orom was so easily fooled. Even with the prison brand limiting his mind, Zac could still sense the improvements to his soul. If his old soul was a fortress surrounded by a moat, then his current soul was like an impervious mountain.

The dampening ocean of his previous reincarnation was gone, but the nine Soul Cores created a mysterious formation as they swirled in his mind. The outer layer of attuned cores created a nigh-impenetrable barrier protecting his true core. No matter how much rain or lightning pummeled its surface, it would stand tall.

Even if some terrifying Mentalist unleashed an overpowered strike at him, Zac knew he could sacrifice one of the outer cores, essentially making him a cat with nine lives. He wanted to find out what other benefits his latest breakthrough brought, but he was wrung dry. Eventually, he gave it up altogether and focused on recuperating.

Zac spent the days barely moving an inch. His only actions were to turn back into his human form and light five sticks of soul-nurturing incense around him. He wasn’t only focusing on letting his drained Mental Energy recuperate, he was also immersed in the stream of impressions he received when his soul was perfected.

He’d been beset by a series of epiphanies in regards to all facets of his cultivation, from his Daos to skill upgrades, to improving his two stances. Zac wanted to burn those impressions to memory before they turned into a confusing haze again. After five days, he had to admit defeat. Anything he’d lost by this point had become too muddled to make any sense of.

Perhaps he’d regain that sense of inspiration down the road when touching upon something tangential. Perhaps not. In either case, it was time to move on to the next step of his plan. Just as he’d hoped, the Orom hadn’t skimped out upon breaking through his soul. It was considered a lot harder compared to simply forming a Dao Branch, and Zac guessed his method was quite unique as well.

Altogether, the breakthrough had netted him just over 11,000 Contribution Points, far better than his estimates. He thought the breakthrough would provide somewhere between 4,000 and 8,000, but it looked like the Orom was extremely interested in improvements of the soul. The points were more than enough to afford the treasure, though he didn’t immediately head out.

Instead, he checked his body for any hidden damage before taking out a [Chainbreaking Pill] and the Stone of Hope. After hesitating, Zac decided against using the [Spiritual Ice].

The item wasn’t reusable, with each use eating up a chunk. The information missive had estimated it was enough for 10 to 15 uses, and they were better saved for the last stretch of levels. There were still a ways to go before that.

Zac took a steadying breath before swallowing the first [Stellar Enkindling Pill].

A radiant power spread through his body, allowing Zac to breathe out in relief. It had been some time since using any leveling pills, and he had both been blasted by Heavenly Lightning and Chaos since then. Along with the continuous ministrations of [Purity of the Void], Zac would be able to reach High E-grade today.

It didn’t take any effort to gently guide the powerful ball of energy toward a node right by his heart. The pill energy forced its way into the small vortex, and it didn’t even take five minutes before Zac shuddered as cracking sounds echoed out from his chest. The mysterious domain of [Stone of Hope] had already activated, but Zac still puked a mouthful of blood before slumping over.

His heart had been lacerated from the explosion, though what would have been a lethal wound before the integration, was now just a minor tribulation. Having a broken heart wouldn’t even phase a Hegemon, and someone like Zac with massive pools of both Endurance of Vitality could seal his blood vessels and survive for hours in this state.

That was more than enough time for Zac, who swallowed a healing pill before activating [Surging Vitality] with his Void Energy. His heart started to rapidly reform, and it was back in working order within five minutes, allowing Zac to continue his work without wasting too much of the medicinal efficacy of the precious pill.

He’d already been somewhat close to breaking open the latest node, and most of the pill energy remained. Capitalizing on his momentum, Zac pushed the shimmering ball upward until it reached his throat. That was the location of the final node in the middle E-grade, acting as the gate between the head and the body.

More and more energy crammed inside, and even Zac started to be filled with trepidation as he felt the buildup. Suddenly, he had an idea, and nine streams of Mental Energy poured down from his Soul Aperture. Before, his Mental Energy hadn’t been powerful enough to make much of a difference when breaking nodes, but things were different now.

The wreckage around him was ample evidence of the potency of his soul.

The nine streams started to enclose the node, each attuned core forming one superimposed barrier after another, alternating between Life and Death until they all were sealed by his inner core. Half an hour later, Zac felt the familiar buildup. Reality shifted as a sharp pain erupted in his throat. But not a drop of blood was lost this time.

There was some internal bleeding though, so Zac activated [Surging Vitality] again as his heart drummed from the excitement. His idea worked even better than expected, with the mental barriers providing even more protection than the [Chainbreaking Pill]. The makeshift barriers had ultimately collapsed from the outburst, but that was partly due to him being unaccustomed to controlling so many threads of Mental Energy at the same time.

The moment the inner layers had been attacked, he lost control over the outer ones, making things a bit chaotic. As long as he had some practice, Zac believed he would be able to double the strength of his barriers.

A surge of glee rushed through Zac that almost matched the one he felt after evolving his soul as he took out a Supreme Nexus Crystal to begin the process of filling the nodes. Having successively opened the node in his throat without much issue was a huge accomplishment. Certainly, he’d used pills to lessen the impact drastically, but the biggest obstacle of being a mortal in the E-grade had finally been overcome.

With his previous preparations, along with the mental barriers and [Spiritual Ice], he was finally confident in tackling the final 25 levels of the E-grade without breaking his brain. It might have cost him a fortune and a lot of headaches, but he was finally there. Now, he could fully turn his attention to the D-grade.

A couple of days passed until the small whirlpool in his throat gained a momentum of its own, prompting a surge of Cosmic Energy to course through his pathways before calming down. He had reached level 125 in his human class, and he opened his Quest Screen with anticipation.

Empyrean Aegis (Class): Form one major and one supporting Dao Branch. Reward: Empyrean Aegis skill. (1/2)

The System wasn’t holding back this time around, demanding two Dao Branches to complete his quest. Even an elite like Catheya hadn’t planned on going down that kind of difficult route until an opportunity presented itself. Then again, it could almost be considered a freebie for Zac, since he was planning on forming multiple Dao Branches anyway.

As for the name of the skill, it was almost definitely defensive, which was exactly what he was lacking in his human form. It also put less pressure on the final skill evolution that awaited him—[Hatchetman’s Spirit]. If he hadn’t been given this kind of skill from the quest, he would have been forced to somehow turn his domain skill into a more defensively oriented one.

As long as this skill delivered, he could focus on strengthening the domain aspects of [Hatchetman’s Spirit] instead. It was perfect, having found some inspiration in the forest of Life before. He would hopefully be able to recapture that feeling down the road so long as he traveled the other Life-attuned zones for a bit.

Having filled the nodes in his human side, Zac rebuilt his cabin before swapping over to his Draugr side. Another few days passed until he reached level 125 there as well, prompting him to gain a second class quest as expected.

Desperation’s End (Class): Extinguish one million souls. Reward: Desperation’s End skill. (0/1,000,000).

39

DAO MANIFESTED INTO LAW

The System was often a bit annoying, although it had to be said it was quite considerate when creating balanced classes. Just like his human side lacked a top-tier skill for survival, his undead side lacked a good finisher that frontloaded damage. [Pillar of Desolation] was a terrifyingly powerful skill, but not only did it cost more than half of his Miasma, it even required some Oblivion Energy to activate.

Meanwhile, [Blighted Cut] was technically a finisher, though it required a few steps to set up. It was also quite cheap, with its finisher being even below [Rapturous Divide] in raw damage output. Of course, if hit by that dismantling skill while inside [Deathmark], you’d be flooded with corrosive damage, making your remaining life short and painful.

Zac hoped [Desperation’s End] was a powerful skill like [Arcadia’s Judgment], where he could make use of his Void Energy to instantly overwhelm and execute difficult opponents. That way he’d be able to better make use of his bloodline in his Draugr form as well. As for extinguishing souls, Zac wasn’t quite certain what that meant. It sounded like simple slaughter, but he would have to visit the Wilderness to make sure.

Seeing as it was a quest for an Epic class, there might be some trick to it rather than simply slaughtering a bunch of animals.

A wisp of Zac’s consciousness entered the small token he got from Murbot, and it listed his current Contribution as [11,584]. Some quick math confirmed Zac’s hopes. Pushing both his levels to 125 netted him 376 Contribution Points, an exact match to his gain in raw attributes. In other words, he gained Contribution Points for leveling both his races, making leveling more lucrative than for other people.

Together with his saved-up points, he had more than enough for the node-finding treasure and traveling the Orom for a while. He would first return to Samsara’s Edge and hopefully purchase the Bloodline Treasure, after which it was time for him to start exploring the Orom World.

Some pieces of the puzzle to his escape were in place, while others were missing. He was able to use his skills and energy just fine, and swapping between races hadn’t agitated the prison brand. He essentially had his whole arsenal available, and now he needed to turn all these tools into a way to break out.

The main issue was that space was sealed in the whole Orom World, so he would either need to use his abilities to escape the inner world or find a weak spot where the teleportation array could be taken out and activated. The Orom World had clearly marked edges, so perhaps it was possible to sneak into its actual body somehow.

Zac planned on traveling to the edge of the Orom in search of solutions. Luckily, these kinds of actions weren’t considered anything unusual, and he didn’t even need to cover up his activities. A lot of cultivators from his cohort had probably done the same thing already. Even those who had quickly adapted would often reach a point where reality set in, and they’d rail against their imprisonment.

If all that failed, he had one last backup plan, though it would delay him at least another year, possibly more. With his twice-reincarnated soul, he would be able to store a whole lot of Oblivion Energy, to the point he would be able to create a terrifying crack in space. One large enough he would be able to sneak through.

If even that failed… Zac shook his head, not ready to entertain such an outcome.

Before setting out, Zac collected all the array flags and other items he’d left across the island before erasing any traces of habitation. It wasn’t like he needed to hide his soul cultivation, but he also didn’t need to raise any unnecessary questions like, ‘why would someone cultivate in a place like this?’ Besides, he was done with this place for now, having accomplished his goal.

If he needed to come here again, he could always set it up for another round, though that would mean his plans had gone awry.

Zac set off along the now-familiar paths toward the settlement, and was relieved to feel he was essentially in perfect condition even though he had opened two nodes. It was thanks to the prisoner brand. It drastically limited his power output, but that also helped serve as a protection. In other words, gaining levels in this place wouldn’t slow him down at all unless he overdid things.

He reached Samsara’s Edge three days later, and was surprised to see the town still full of hustle and bustle even after more than two weeks had passed. He guessed the warriors who stayed behind took the opportunity to destress before consuming whatever treasures they’d bought.

Many had probably been secluded for decades, perhaps even centuries, and were in dire need of some R&R. Besides, the next culling was not for another twenty years for Hegemons, and 270 years for Monarchs. They weren’t exactly running out of time.

A few of the cultivators recognized Zac and waved him over, which resulted in him making some new acquaintances. When asked why he’d returned so quickly, he told the truth after some consideration. He had managed to break through with his soul, providing him with a windfall of Purchase Points.

It was a bit unnerving to be so candid after having been introduced to the Dao of Paranoia by Ogras, but sometimes you had to give a bit to gain something in return. The more potential he exhibited, the better his reception would be among these powerhouses. That, in turn, could open up all kinds of doors for him in the future.

“Youngster!” a distorted voice drew Zac’s attention as he closed in on the Contribution Store, and he looked over to see a radiant energy-being in the distance.

It was something akin to a Life Elemental that Zac had spoken with while waiting for the store to open last time. People called it Ubo, since its true name was unpronounceable. The elemental looked a bit like a spectral cultivator drenched in gold, but it was actually a semi-corporeal species. The large shimmering rock in its belly was its true core, while the shimmering body it had formed was real enough to carry items and even consume food.

Zac walked over with a smile. Not only was Ubo a Monarch and a Gold Attendant, there was someone familiar standing next to it—the half-tree woman he met while crossing the forest two months back.

“Hello, again,” Zac smiled before turning to the semi-tree. “I hope your experiment was a success.”

“Oh, you know Heda?” Ubo exclaimed with surprise. “She rarely leaves her little plot of land.”

“I watched him dance,” the woman smiled before she looked strangely at Zac. “I have been thinking of you.”

“Uh… Alright?” Zac hesitantly said.

“Don’t mind her,” Ubo coughed. “For some reason, she decided to fuse her soul with an unknown seed the Orom picked up a few dozen millennia ago. She hasn’t quite been herself since.”

“It worked,” Heda shrugged. “I would have been culled if I didn’t try something new.”

Zac listened to the exchange, confirming something he'd suspected since seeing Heda stand next to the elemental. The fact Ubo mentioned dozens of millennia all-but-confirmed the half-plant cultivator was an actual Monarch just like the elemental.

“Is having your soul subverted that much better than simply dying?” Ubo muttered before they turned to Zac. “So, what are you up to, youngster? Your life energy is quite vibrant. I guess you are below fifty years of age, no? Having trouble acclimatizing to the repose of reclusive cultivation?”

“Something like that,” Zac smiled. “I thought I would tour the Orom World for a bit. I’m still finding my way, and there are so many things to draw inspiration from.”

“Taking inspiration is fine, but be careful to not get swept up in someone else’s path,” Ubo urged as a token flashed into being. “I will not enter true seclusion for another ten years or so. If you’re interested, you’re welcome to visit my abode. I was born from a sanctified rock and instilled with untainted Life since my mind’s eye first gazed upon the world. My experiences might be of use to you.”

“Absolutely.” Zac stowed the marker. “Thank you.”

“Me too,” Heda said, and a wooden plaque sprouted and detached itself from her left hand. “There is Death in your Life. Perhaps, we can inspire each other.”

“I’ll try to make it,” Zac said with a slow nod.

With these two, he’d gathered almost twenty markers. They were essentially invitation tokens that not only acted as maps to people’s cultivation caves, but were also markers and messages to the outside world in case someone managed to leave.

It was a simple form of quid pro quo in this place, where people exchanged cultivation lessons for hope. These two cultivators were the first Monarchs he’d received an invitation from though, making them even more valuable.

These two weren’t quite as powerful as Yrial in his heyday, but they weren’t just fragments of a soul. Just a few simple instructions could help a lot. Zac was almost disgustingly powerful for his level, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a lot he could learn, even from Hegemons. No matter if it was their experiences in breaking bottlenecks or their pursuit of the Dao, they’d walked far further down the road than he had.

Zac could freely enter the Contribution Store now, but he still had to wait an hour before a disk became available. A few minutes later, he emerged decidedly poorer, but with the treasure securely stowed away in his Cosmos Sack. Apart from the [Seed of Eldritch Awakening], as the node-finding treasure was called, Zac also spent over 4,000 points on a series of items.

Items geared toward E-grade cultivators were dirt-cheap, so he managed to purchase treasures that could improve his constitution and soul, longevity-boosting items, and top-quality Attribute Fruits and Dao Treasures. He still had roughly 1,500 points to spare, but there was nothing else he urgently needed, and nothing he feared would go out of stock if he didn’t buy immediately.

Rather, Zac believed he was better off renting some of the High-quality cultivation grounds with his remaining points, unless he found an exit quicker than expected. Those places could help with everything from his skill fusions to comprehending his Dao and stances at an accelerated pace.

If he managed to escape ahead of schedule, he would simply have to give up on those 1,500 points, which wasn’t a big deal compared to his vast fortune.

There wasn’t anything else left to do, so Zac walked over to the transport hub and teleported over to Glimmerwood. The Orom World was shaped like an oblong circle, with the Wilderness commanding one of the short sides. Closest to the other edge, and the Orom’s head according to speculation, Glimmerwood was situated.

Zac figured he’d check out the space-attributed zones and the edge of the Orom World first, working his way down as he looked for weaknesses to exploit.

As luck would have it, Zac ran into a familiar face, the old man who’d helped him a bit when they first arrived. He was currently drinking with two others he didn’t recognize. Judging by their auras, they should all follow the Dao of Stars. Perhaps they were others from the Radiant Temple who had been captured.

Zac only stayed behind to talk for a few minutes before he left with three more tokens. Turns out the old man was called Travo Raso, and was some sort of fixer for the Radiant Temple. For example, if some minor clan didn’t pay their taxes or hid a promising talent, Travo went there to see what was going on.

Such activities were a bit beneath the officials of the Radiant Temples, so they preferred to use outside experts like Travo to make sure the money and young talents kept coming. Certainly, with Travo’s apparent talent, he would easily have been able to enter as an official member of the Radiant Temple. However, he enjoyed the freedom too much to become a proper enforcer.

More importantly, Travo enjoyed the huge number of bribes that kept coming his way in return for looking the other way when people shirked their responsibilities.

From Glimmerwood, Zac headed west, aiming to reach the tip of the Orom World. The surroundings of Glimmerwood were quite different compared to the other zones he’d passed through so far. For one, the sky was black, though the area was illuminated by numerous constellations that kept changing.

Apparently, the sky contained the echoes of the Orom’s own understanding of the Dao of Space and the Stars. There were innumerable such truths hidden all across the Orom World. It was all designed to subtly influence the captives’ paths, thus increasing the likelihood of them generating useful insights.

Those at the top could see through it, but for an E-grade cultivator like Zac, it was simply impossible. Thankfully for him, the way he gained insights was pretty weird. He could look at the Orom’s sky for a million years without forming any Dao Branches unless he was absorbing some Dao Treasures. With zero affinities, a sky was just a sky.

Right outside Glimmerwood’s area of influence stood a forest full of luminescent plants that stretched for a day’s travel. Zac encountered several warded-off cultivation caves among the trees, but he didn’t encounter anyone as he took a long berth around. Eventually, the trees grew sparse as the forest was replaced by a mountainous region.

It didn’t feel like the mountains were natural formations, though Zac figured that might be a result of how the Orom World was created. There was never any rain or strong winds, except in the elemental zones, and this particular section neither had seasons or a daily cycle. It would be odd if the stones were whittled down in such a place.

Instead, the mountain walls were covered in extremely sharp cuts and it almost looked like a laser had shaved off some sections. With the spatial fluctuations emanating from within, it was obviously the work of the Dao of Space. The area was rife with Spatial Energies, though Zac frowned when he realized it wasn’t a good thing in this case.

Just like Temporal Energy could both slow down and speed up time, Spatial Energy could both weaken and strengthen the laws of space. In this area, Zac suspected it was the latter, making the seal even stronger. Wanting to try something out, Zac found a secluded spot where he activated [Earthstrider] with some Void Energy.

As anticipated, he was met with strong resistance, and he only moved a fifth of the distance compared to what he was capable of. It felt like pushing through quicksand, proving the Spatial Energies were working against him. Trying to tear open space in this area would be extremely difficult.

Zac continued toward the edge of the world, and even after two weeks, he was unable to find a single spatial tear. Not that he expected much. If random tears popped up, people would definitely try to escape, just like how desperate captives in the Technocrat research base did.

Eventually, Zac crossed the final mountain between him and the edge, and his brows rose when he saw over twenty people already standing there. Zac walked over, despite the oppressive atmosphere. A few glanced in his direction, but most were seemingly lost in their thoughts.

“Trying your luck as well, kid?” came a sigh, and Zac looked over to see a familiar face. It was one of the Havarok warriors who’d been dragged here in the same cohort as himself.

“No good, huh?” Zac grimaced.

“See for yourself,” the man said with a wave.

Zac nodded curiously as he continued past the group. One moment, his vision was filled with expansive vistas that stretched to eternity, only for the scene to grow blurred the farther he went. A moment later, he reached a shimmering haze that looked like a purple nebula. This was the true edge of the Orom World.

He wondered if he would be committing a crime by trying to pass through the barrier. However, a Revenant suddenly popped out next to him, swearing like a sailor as he moved back toward the others. Zac wasn’t planning on using his hidden cards in front of an audience, but he still entered to get a sense of what he was dealing with.

A moment later, he emerged again, looking at the spot where he came from with confusion. Just like in the City of Ancients, he’d been redirected without noticing. However, while the thick haze in the City of Ancients had been the result of some intricate illusion arrays, Zac’s instincts told him the edge of the Orom World was the result of high-grade spatial laws.

His mind wasn’t tricked to turn around, space was rather folded in some way, where all directions were steered back to the Orom World. Zac sighed and walked back to the group, and his suspicions were confirmed soon enough.

“How could people possibly have broken out from this place before?” the Revenant swore. “This isn’t a barrier. This is Dao manifested into law. To break through, you’d need to overpower it. But how could we accomplish that without having confirmed our Dao?”

40

JOURNEY

Zac grimaced when he heard the Revenant’s description of the spatial seal that prevented them from leaving the Orom World. He wasn’t exactly certain what ‘Dao manifested into law’ meant, but he guessed it was like a Dao Field except innumerable times more powerful. From what he’d gathered, Dao Intent was the next step after a Dao Field, and Dao Law might be multiple levels above that.

Dao Intent was a testament to the degree you controlled your Dao. It wasn’t dependent on the strength of your soul, though a powerful soul generally helped. When you reached the level of forming Dao Intent, you could condense your understanding into something more corporeal than just a large field around you.

It could essentially be turned into something akin to a skill, where you could kill a thousand people with a simple thought or empower your normal attacks. He remembered the powerful blade of sword intent Thea had been imparted with from the Blade Emperor inheritance. That small fragment contained a huge number of insights into the Dao of the Sword, and it helped her both cultivate quicker and unleash powerful strikes.

Those were just simple tricks though, which were mostly useful against a large number of weaker enemies. The more important aspect was that by the time you could form Dao Intent, you had a far greater command of your Dao. Skills empowered by the Daos would become stronger and you would more easily integrate the Dao into your combat style.

Most likely Dao manifested into law meant you had such high control of a Dao, that you could essentially change how the world worked in a certain area around you.

“Perhaps there are times weaknesses appear,” a beastman ventured.

“I think you are right,” another cultivator agreed. “I heard from a Gold Attendant that the Orom World occasionally enters some sort of dark state. All Cosmic Energy is dragged out from the world and the laws grow dim. People might think it happens when the Orom is fighting or entering dangerous pockets of space. It can’t waste energy on us in that kind of situation, which might present some opportunity.”

“I heard about that as well,” a golemoid cultivator with an earthy aura rumbled. “But cultivators are sealed by the brand when that happens, and everyone’s energy is siphoned off like in the bubbles. Who would be able to break out in that kind of state?”

Zac’s heart shuddered when he heard there were windows of opportunity that could appear at any moment, but kept his face impassive. Seeing as nothing else came up, he excused himself. Zac continued along the edge, prompting half his field of vision to be the mountain range he just passed, and the other half the purple nebula that stretched to the sky.

A few hours later, and Zac activated his ocular skill to make sure none of the others were close. After making sure he was alone, he once more started pushing into the haze, using everything from his Draugr-vision to [Void Zone] in an attempt to force his way through. The only thing he didn’t do was unleash powerful strikes like [Arcadia’s Judgment] out of fear that someone would notice.

Unfortunately, no matter what he tried, the result was the same.

It was just like the Hegemons said, the concepts safeguarding the edge of the inner world were just too profound. It wasn’t a barrier that could be broken, and it wasn’t some sort of energy that could be nullified. The laws of the universe had been altered at the edge, where up was no longer up and left was no longer left.

Not even his Void Emperor bloodline could subvert the laws of space like that, rendering his [Void Zone] useless. Still, Zac refused to give up. He’d already decided to walk along the edge of the whole Orom World in search of opportunities, and that was what he would do. Some setbacks right in the beginning weren’t enough for him to give in to despair.

A few weeks passed like this, and Zac entered the next zone. Along the way, he encountered even more people who sought an escape, and his helplessness was mirrored in their expressions as they passed each other by. The place he just entered was another rocky region, this one illuminated by a scorching sun and filled with fiery energies.

Rivers of magma flowed in crevasses, and Zac was shocked at how rapidly his surroundings had changed over the past hour. Zac eventually steered away from the edge, finding an unclaimed cave an hour’s trek away. There, he set up his arrays before taking out a bottle of [Stellar Enkindling Pills].

Three weeks later, Zac emerged, having broken open another four nodes and filled them with energy, providing him with thousands of more Contribution Points. He’d officially entered the Late E-grade now, which meant each node and each level provided even more attribute points.

Zac believed he had a pretty big advantage compared to the other E-grade cultivators in that regard. The few “lucky” ones who survived the great filter were mostly at Peak E-grade already, with their eyes set at forming a core. They didn’t have easy access to Contribution Points in the same way he did, which might become more important as a speedy escape started to look less likely every day.

Even after having consecutively opened four nodes in his head, Zac was still in decent shape. He had a pretty bad headache, but it was nothing compared to the suffering of blowing up your brain. It could have been much worse, and the damage was kept to a minimum thanks to his powerful soul.

Zac continuously worked on familiarizing himself with his transformed soul while traveling, and he was getting increasingly adroit when controlling the nine tendrils. It wasn’t exactly smooth, but neither was he making big mistakes like the first time he tried shielding a node.

He believed he would be able to improve his technique even further so long as he kept working on it, but it was enough to barely receive any physical damage while breaking open nodes with the help of pills, though the damage to his foundations was still there. Unfortunately, he’d reached the limit of the [Stellar Enkindling Pills] for now, though he still had mountains of Beast Cores in his Spatial Rings.

The real test would be whether he could safely brute-force levels with all his new advantages. Zac would wait though, restoring his state to peak condition before attempting something like that.

As Zac got more and more used to his odd nine-core soul, it became increasingly clear that his cultivation method was pretty unique. He’d found that he could choose whether he wanted to drag attuned Mental Energy or pure Mental Energy from his outer cores, making it something in-between an attuned and unattuned cultivation method.

However, the amount of energy the cores released was greater when he extracted attuned energy. It was like only half of the core was used when conjuring unattuned energies. In other words, only a cultivator who cultivated both Life and Death could make the most of the soul that the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] created.

Zac had only undergone the second reincarnation so far, and the effect might become greater as he progressed further with the method. It was pretty lucky that Vilari had dropped the method in favor of whatever Soul Strengthening Method Ralz Carzood, the Crown of Despair, had imparted. Otherwise, she would probably find herself unable to use a significant part of her soul down the road.

It made Zac quite curious about the origin of the [Nine Reincarnations Manual]. He had scoured the Contribution Store already, and it wasn’t listed among the thousands of methods that were for sale. Conversely, all the common methods were there, most of them in various editions.

More importantly, how many people actually cultivated both Life and Death at the same time? In all accounts, it was extremely rare to have affinities in both those paths. Was the technique something created by a Life-Death Edgewalker such as himself? Or was it custom-designed by the System to allow him to keep gathering the Remnants for it?

There were some indications that the method might be of Buddhist origins, but Zac knew too little about the various branches of the Buddhist Sangha to draw any definite conclusions. Who knew, it was perhaps possible to turn the Daos of Life and Death toward some sort of Dao of Samsara or Reincarnation, rather than pushing the Daos toward Chaos.

Perhaps he could ask some monk later, they seemed pretty open about themselves. For now, the method worked just fine for him, which was all that mattered.

Zac continued his journey after reaching level 129 in one go. Unfortunately, while he made some strides with his cultivation, the same couldn’t be said for his prison break. No matter if it was the fiery region or glacier that neighbored it, there were simply no weaknesses to exploit. The barrier was impenetrable, and digging downward was no use either.

After pushing roughly two kilometers into the ground, a similar spatial barrier appeared. It was like he’d reached the core of a planet, where every direction technically was up. He found himself floating in the air, continuously falling without actually moving. If he tried forcing his way through the odd field, he encountered the same type of spatial bending as before. He could only climb out of the tunnel with disappointment and continue on.

Zac wasn’t interested in the Daos that had left their mark on the frozen world around him, but he was a bit interested in how they impacted their surroundings. Zac doubted the Orom bothered to meticulously craft every zone for its prisoners. Rather, it just flooded the areas with different Daos, and the attunement slowly terraformed the world.

Was this how attuned worlds looked? Would Earth become like the zones around Samsara’s Edge in the future, where the dominant Dao had a direct impact on everything from a blade of grass to the cultivators who lived on those lands? Or was it amplified here for the sake of expediting breakthroughs?

No matter the case, Zac found it harder and harder to ignore the whispers in the back of his head. His prospects of escaping were getting lower and lower each day. He’d considered himself unique, armed with both his unique bloodline and the Remnants. But he underestimated just how absolute the Orom’s domain was.

In this place, the Orom was the Heavens, and its will was Heavenly Law.

More than once, Zac found himself beset with hesitation, forcing those thoughts aside as he kept going, looking for fault-lines while visiting nearby settlements to gather information. He also had a blacksmith fashion a copy of [Love’s Bond] in exchange for 500 Purchase Points.

The copy couldn’t change form and had no skills. But it was made from High-quality materials, especially the five pitch-black chains. The blacksmith had even managed to infuse the metal with some corrosive crystal that would help strengthen his skills even though the tool wasn’t Death-attuned.

It was a far cry from the real thing, but it would be enough to serve his needs, no matter if you talked about training in the Wilderness or practicing his Inexorable Stance. As for the real deal, it was still in deep slumber. Zac wasn’t sure if it was because of the dangerous energies or the Purifier it had swallowed—he could only wait and see.

Showing up inside a settlement in his Draugr persona was also a way for him to legitimize his other personality. There was no census or anything, so this way people would simply assume he was one of the new prisoners from the latest batch. He made sure to make some connections in his undead form as well, though he wasn’t able to gather too many tokens this far from the sections where the undead generally stayed.

While traveling in his undead form, he wore a simple mask to shield his Draugr heritage, similar to the one he wore when arriving at the Twilight Harbor. It was a bit unusual, but it wasn’t unprecedented that people hide their appearances one way or another. Some cultivators developed quirks, and people chalked it up to something similar.

Weeks turned to months with Zac making his way toward the Wilderness, one step at a time. He also secluded himself a few times to digest various ideas and insights he had on the road. Eventually, he reached the eastern section of the Orom World, and one day, stopped atop a small hill that provided great vantage of the surroundings.

When reading about the Orom World’s arena on the stele of rules, Zac pictured something like the Big Axe Coliseum back in the Zecia Sector. However, the structure that stood in the distance was just a fraction the size of what he expected. Of course, it was still a couple of times bigger than the sports arenas back on Earth since it required enough space for superhumans to clash, but it was nowhere near the city-like size of the coliseum he visited on the Bloodwind Planet.

Zac thought about it before he decided to head over, and was met by a raucous round of cheers as he passed through the gate. There were a couple of clerks stationed by the entrance in case you wanted to sign up for battle, but Zac was more interested in observing some fights.

You seldom had to wait long to spectate a duel, considering there were tens of thousands who sought inspiration by alternating between fighting in the Wilderness and battling on the stage. This soon after the Orom fed, the number of participants and spectators was even greater. Only the years before a culling would see more foot traffic, when people desperately struggled to break through.

Zac sat in an empty seat with a decent view, just in time to see two warriors leave the arena. One was a human sporting a nasty wound in his side, whereas the other was a beastman who was carried out by an Attendant. Seeing as he might have to wait a while for the next fight, Zac took out a vat of spiritual wine he’d moved over to his Cosmos Sack.

“First time here?” a friendly voice asked, and Zac looked over to see a smiling woman donning leather armor covered in unfamiliar runes.

On her belt, there were over twenty identical daggers, while two short-swords were sheathed by her hip. She had a bloody aura, though Zac didn’t believe she walked some sort of assassin path even if her weapons leaned that way. He felt a sense of familiarity as he looked at her. It wasn’t that he recognized the woman, but he rather suspected she walked some path related to the Dao of Conflict.

“Just arrived,” Zac nodded.

“New batch, huh?” she said as she thumped down next to him, her eyes locked to the vat in Zac’s hand. “I’m Yurul. I guess you could say I have some renown here. Fought over 2,000 matches, altogether.”

Zac smiled slightly as he took out another vat and handed it to her, prompting her eyes to light up. Her hands turned into a blur before she poured at least five liters worth of alcohol down her throat.

“That hits the spot. I’ve mostly been drinking ol’ Barrel’s swill for over a thousand years. It’s strong enough, but he insists on putting those centipedes inside. They taste alright, but it’s a pain when they bite your tongue,” Yurul sighed. “That’s what you get when buying alcohol from a poison master.”

“The centipedes are alive?” Zac said with a raised brow.

“They cultivate inside the vats, which purifies the brew,” Yurul shrugged. “You planning on competing? You seem like the fighting type.”

“I was told to avoid this place,” Zac smiled. “For now, I’m just here to watch.”

“Avoid?” Yurul repeated with confusion until her eyes widened. “Oh, you’re one of the brats? Bad luck, huh? Well, better than becoming fertilizer, I guess. Any chance of you getting out of here?”

“We’ll see,” Zac smiled.

He’d been asked that quite a few times by now, though few were as direct as the gladiator next to him.

“Mooching off the newcomers again, Yurul?” a gruff voice snorted, attached to an approaching, scarred Ogre.

“Don’t mind him. He’s just a bit pissy he lost 5,000 Purchase Points yesterday,” Yurul laughed. “Another of the regulars had just made a breakthrough in secret, and he chose Obbo to provide the celebratory gift.”

Zac looked at the Ogre with confusion.

“People hide their breakthroughs to swindle good folks out of their Purchase Points. Arol pretended to get in a heated argument with me that lasted for five days, and it ended with me challenging him. It was all a ruse to make me place a larger bet,” Obbo sighed as he thumped down next to Yurul.

“Like you haven’t done the same,” Yurul snorted as she glanced at the arena. “Oh, Pavina is fighting today? She’s a tough one.”

Zac followed her gaze to see a Revenant emerge from one of the gates, her aura reeking of Death. A small smile crept up across Zac’s face as he looked on. His luck had come through for him again. Pavina was actually a Silver Attendant and someone who seemed to cultivate Pure Death.

He’d just visited the arena out of curiosity, but an opportunity to study someone who walked a similar path as himself had fallen right in his lap.

41

WAKING UP

The air screamed and red dust swirled as a halberd pierced toward her. Her mind was still a mess, but the endless drills she’d endured guided her movements. A brutal scream emerged from the depths of her soul as she swung her axe in an overhead arc to slam it out of the way.

At the same time, a burst of the sun’s fury ripped straight past her from the totem behind her back, finishing off the orc who already lost his right arm. Another wail meant [Apostle of Autumn] had finished yet another warrior, leaving the captain as the lone survivor. Going from three-versus-one to a one-versus-one in an instant had extinguished his desire to battle, and swirls of razor-sharp winds erupted around his body.

Emily recognized that skill all-too-well. After all, her enemies were the very party she had traveled with over the past six months. It was [Razorwake], Captain Krog’s E-grade movement skill. Emily inwardly wavered on striking the back of a fleeing enemy, but the will of the Bloodwind World and the wounds across her body urged her on.

Roots sprung up from the ground as Emily activated [Spring’s Embrace], and the roots locked the area in place, preventing Krog from flashing away. From there, she seamlessly closed the distance as Cosmic Energy coursed through her body, her fury conveyed through the Fragment of the Axe as she struck.

Krog understood the situation he was in, and he turned with a ferocious glint in his eye. A crying mask appeared the moment Emily’s tomahawk closed in on his body, but a flash erupted from Emily’s fingers as one of her rings cracked. The defensive treasure that was meant to block Emily’s strike instantly crumbled from the light, and her weapon dug deep into flesh.

A cascading torrent of blood drenched her even further, and she ignored the viscous liquid. She delivered a second strike, this one digging deeper. Krog feebly tried to counter, but a fiery lizard bit his muscular arm clean off, prompting his halberd to drop to the ground.

Krog stumbled to his knees as bubbles of blood formed around his lips. He was trying to say something, but Emily didn’t want to hear it. With a flash of her axe, his throat was split wide open, and he toppled over with a thump.

A huge surge of energy burrowed into her body, though she barely registered it. Not even the insidious energy that covered the Bloodwind World could prevent the wave of confusing emotions that pushed to the surface now that the crisis was averted. She’d been betrayed, with all six members of her adventurer party striking her out of nowhere.

It was clearly a premeditated attack, and not a single one of her companions had tried to warn her. It wasn’t like she’d joined a veteran party who had adventured on the Bloodwind World for decades either. Only Krog and Brudge knew each other from their homeworld, while the others were recruited at the same time as her.

Yet they’d come to an accord to assassinate and rob a fellow member of the Big Axe Coliseum.

She knew she'd been shielded from the true horrors of the Multiverse since Zac saved her life all those years ago, but she still couldn’t believe it. She was also aware that she would be the one lying on the ground right now if not for Zac, her treasures split among the warriors whose corpses littered the area around her.

A gentle nudge made her look over with confusion, and she weakly smiled when she saw her conjured lizard by her side. It looked like it was trying to comfort her, even though it was just an energy construct without a real mind of its own. Was it some sort of self-defense mechanism from her subconscious?

“Thank you,” she sighed as she patted the lizard’s head, and the summon along with the large totem pole dissipated a moment later.

She suddenly felt so utterly alone, a stranger lost in a corner of the Gorehowl Forest. Yet her instincts kicked in, and she heard her master’s urgings in the back of her head. Not Warsong’s, but Zac’s. She moved the bodies together into a pile before she took out a black vial and started pouring its contents over the corpses.

Soon enough, only ash and a few treasures remained, and she stoically put the treasures into a spare Cosmos Sack one by one. When it was filled, she took out a talisman and placed it on the sack before throwing it into the air. The talisman activated, and a burst of chaotic energies was followed by a wave of spatial fluctuations.

The Cosmos Sack had been ripped apart, its contents lost in some unreachable corner of the Void. With the corpses destroyed, she used a cleansing array to rid her of all the blood and grime before covering herself in fate-breaking dust. Finally finished with Zac’s danger-averting procedure, she flashed away through the forest, taking the long route back toward the teleporter in case of ambush.

She felt completely hollow, rushing through the forest and entering some sort of fugue state as she simply moved by instinct. Only when approaching the teleporter five days later did she somewhat wake up, and she roused herself before stepping onto the array. With a flash, she appeared outside the Big Axe Coliseum, the events of the past week somehow feeling like a dream.

A few confused looks were directed her way upon returning alone, but she ignored the warriors. She knew what they were thinking. Krog was only a Late E-grade warrior with almost no chance of reaching the D-grade, but he’d stayed in the coliseum for over thirty years. Quite a few at similar levels knew of him and his newly established party.

Why was she returning from a hunt alone?

The stares were almost like daggers, and she hurried into the coliseum, heading to the inner sanctums. She flashed her token to the Pseudo D-grade warrior who guarded a specific corridor, and he nodded before activating a teleporter for her.

A moment later, she found herself standing at the top of a balcony that overlooked the whole area. This place was one of the hidden mountain peaks behind the coliseum, and it belonged to one of the leaders of the Big Axe Coliseum—Warsong, the fourth elder.

“You’re back,” the scarred man said, taking in Emily’s ragged appearance. “How was it?”

“The others attacked me,” she said, her voice shaky as she finally allowed herself to remember the betrayal. “We adventured together for months, yet they tried to kill me!”

“Indeed,” Warsong nodded. “Do you know why?”

“Because of my treasures,” Emily spat, but she suddenly looked at her master with shock. “You knew they would target me?”

“I assumed as much, so I followed you.”

“You didn’t step forward and stop them?” Emily stuttered with wide eyes. “Am I really your disciple?”

“If you were killed by that kind of rabble, even with all the precious items you’ve been flaunting, then you weren’t qualified to be my disciple.” Warsong shrugged. “Instead, this turned into a decent learning experience. You say that you want to understand war, that you want to reach the peak, yet your hands are almost untainted of blood.”

An aura reeking of blood flooded the balcony, a killing intent endlessly more powerful than the pervasive atmosphere of the Bloodwind Planet. It no longer felt like she was looking at a man. It felt like she was looking at a Primordial Beast, the two axes hanging from his belt razor-sharp fangs bared at her.

“Why should I help you?”

“I—” Emily weakly said, her anger quelled by the ruthless gaze of her master. “I’m sorry.”

“You used three Peak-quality E-grade items to kill those people. One restriction talisman, one offensive talisman, and the defense-breaking ring at the end. By their quality, I would say you spent roughly 12,000 E-grade Nexus Coins to kill a couple of warriors whose total wealth barely surpassed 1,000 E-grade Nexus Coins. And you actually destroyed the items rather than rightfully claim them. If you were a wandering cultivator like most warriors in this place, you’d be long dead.”

Emily looked to the ground as she took in the admonishment, knowing he was speaking the truth. The items Zac prepared were the only reason she was alive. This wasn’t even the first time she’d relied on them.

“You have an Epic class, a set of powerful skills, and extremely developed Daos for your age. You should have been able to kill those six without breaking a sweat and without using a single supportive item,” Warsong continued. “This will keep happening unless you smarten up. I’m guessing that is why your backer sent you here.”

“That’s…”

“No need to repeat that story about finding a trove,” Warsong snorted. “I don’t care which faction you’re from. I took you in because I saw your potential and found your path interesting. But I will not come to your aid like some elder of your family. And judging by the fact that you were sent here of all places, neither will they until you’ve become worthy of further nurturing.”

Emily wanted to retort, to counter or swear like she did when teased by Zac. Only, she couldn’t make a peep. The aura of her master was too powerful, quelling any resistance.

“Well, you’re still young, and you have a lot of room for improvement,” Warsong sighed before restraining his aura. “If you want it, I have an opportunity for you. But I’ll only provide it if you agree with my rules.”

“What is it?” Emily asked breathlessly, feeling like a mountain had finally been lifted from her shoulders.

“A pocket dimension has been discovered not too far from here. It has been claimed by the Ruthless Heavens, and only those at the E-grade can enter,” Warsong said as he looked down at the gladiator stages far below.

“A Mystic Realm?” Emily said, her messy mind suddenly cleared by a wave of desire.

Desire to become stronger. Desire to shed the weakness she had seen in herself.

“Most of these pockets will become Open Realms after the initial event and turned into something like a training ground or herbal garden depending on the environment. Because of its location, it will be jointly controlled by the coliseum, the Supreme Sword Palace, and four other factions,” Warsong explained. “We’re mostly on good terms, but competition is Heavenly Law.

“Depending on the results of the trial, each faction will get a different share of ownership. We will all send a series of peak warriors to open the realm and a few seedlings with potential. It will become a small-scale war for ownership and opportunities. You’re too weak to be a warrior, but you have the foundation to be a seedling.”

“And you’ll give me a spot? Even if I messed up?” Emily hesitantly asked.

“As I said, on one condition.” Warsong’s eyes bore into hers. “I will give you one of the spots, but only if you leave your treasures behind. You only get one lifesaving item and your equipment. If you want more talismans and defensive treasures, snatch them from the bodies of your fallen enemies.”

Emily’s eyes widened in shock, thinking back to how many times the mountain of treasures had saved her the fifteen months she’d spent on the Bloodwind Planet. She knew herself well. There obviously wouldn’t be any monsters like Zac in a small-scale trial like this, but there would be Peak E-grade warriors.

She was still only level 103, unable to deal with those who had accumulated a foundation at the peak of the grade, even with her Epic class and other advantages. If she brought all the items Zac left for her through Vilari, she would be almost unkillable and able to dominate the whole trial with treasures alone.

Without them… She would be under constant threat of death.

“I’ve told you already. War is coming, a war far more brutal than anything you will experience in some small trial. You need to make a choice. Hide behind your heritage or enter the path of a true warrior for a shot at controlling your destiny.”

“I’ll do it,” Emily said with clenched fists, a glean of determination shimmering in her eyes.

“Good,” Warsong nodded. “Thankfully, you have some time remaining. Rest up. In two days, I’m sending you to the Twinruin Gorge. Your blades have finally tasted some blood, but not enough.”

* * *

Zac was still a bit shook as he made his way through the deathly forest neighboring Samsara’s Edge, once more donning the mask hiding his Draugr heritage. He’d already come to terms with the fact that his strength was right at the bottom rung in this place, but watching a dozen matches in the arena had still been an eye-opening experience.

The way the Hegemons fought was beyond ferocious, and they managed to squeeze more power out of the small number of attribute points they had than Zac thought possible. Their bodies were a blur throughout their clashes across the arena, fluently swapping between skills and pure technique in a desperate struggle to create openings.

Not a single second was wasted. Not a single movement superfluous. They became avatars of their paths, putting it all on the line. Zac had somewhat felt he would be able to at least put up a decent fight as long as he could use an axe. But from what he saw, he was far from reaching that point. Even the weakest combatants he observed over the last day would have easily dismantled his stances before taking him out.

The stronger ones would simply crush him.

This was especially obvious in the two battles between Silver Attendants. Even now, Zac didn’t quite understand how they accomplished some of the strikes they unleashed. Pavina, for example, pushed Death to a level Zac had never seen before. However, she wasn’t like Zac, a spider who gradually trapped and whittled down his victims.

She was a grim reaper, whose strikes and technique presented another facet of inexorability. Zac almost felt like his own Inexorable Stance was a joke compared to the lethality the Revenant exhibited, but he pulled himself together, knowing he was still finding his way.

Still, while the fights shocked him, they were also exhilarating. Even if only Pavina had a path close to his own, it was extremely illuminating to witness how the different warriors incorporated their Daos and skills into a fluid combat system. He was simply lacking proper foundations, with no masters to teach him and no elders in his force to show him the way.

There was Yrial, but he was ultimately just a ghost. The duration the ghost could guide Zac was limited and highly dependent on his mood. It was nothing compared to growing up in a sect or with elders who could knock away at least some of the roadblocks on the road of cultivation. Zac initially planned on taking a trip into the Wilderness after visiting the arena, but ultimately decided against it.

First of all, he’d found out that even the weakest of the beasts in the Wilderness had twice the amount of attribute points compared to the prisoners. It was the Orom making up for quality with quantity. The beasts it reared were in the E-grade, useless for a Hegemon to fight on even ground with.

If there wasn’t a handicap, there was no point. Zac was pretty confident in taking out beasts at twice his attribute pool, but those kinds of fights weren’t his strong suit. If anything, he was usually the one who bullied the enemy with his massive attribute pool rather than the other way around.

Thankfully, he heard the attribute configuration would change to match his own allocation. For example, roughly 30% of his attribute points were Strength when not restrained, so his Strength would rise to almost 2000 in the arena or the Wilderness. Conversely, most of his other attributes would be lowered, except for Vitality and Endurance.

Only Luck was untouched, probably because the Orom was unable to mess with something like that.

Even then, Zac was a bit hesitant about entering the Wilderness. His life wasn’t in danger thanks to his bloodline, but he still didn’t want to risk getting exposed just to save his life from a beast tide. Besides, he’d pretty much given up on finding an easily exploitable weakness in the Orom’s spatial seal. He didn’t believe he would suddenly be able to pass through the walls in the Wilderness.

That meant he would have to wait for his Oblivion Energy to gather up. Four months had passed since evolving his soul already, but Zac could sense he wasn’t even half-full by how much purified Oblivion Energy he could store. Since he couldn’t influence that process, he might as well spend the time focusing on consolidating his gains and powering up.

His first target had been tantalizing him for months already and it was finally time to see if his investment was worthwhile. It was the [Seed of Eldritch Awakening] that might open another Hidden Node.

42

ANCIENT DREAD

“Is it really here?” Galau muttered as he kept watch for those sinister insects that lorded over the planet.

“That’s what the captain said,” Bubbur grunted, though he was clearly just as confused as Galau was.

“What would the invaders want with an uninhabited place like this?” Galau said. “The planet seems old enough, which means this area has to be pretty stable. But there are multiple nearby gates. It would be impossible to hold it for long.”

“Not to mention these critters,” another member of the expedition added. “Setting up a camp would be suicide. There are simply too many, and they’re freakishly perceptive. Just look how they attacked our ship. Those bastards would have to invest way too much in shielding to make it worth it. Setting up camp on a random asteroid would be better.”

“It only took us four jumps from the Worldship to get here,” Bubbur thoughtfully said. “Perhaps they’re setting up an ambush?”

“They would have to be suicidal to attack the Worldship with their current strength,” Galau said with a shake of his head. “Their weapons are pretty terrifying, but by the time someone powerful enough makes it through, the Worldship will be long gone from that position.”

At least Galau prayed that was the case. They still hadn’t found the Space Gate, though they knew it was out there. After all, the enemies were here already.

They were just rumors at first, unconfirmed sightings of a new group of spacefarers in this chaotic sector of space. Normally, that wasn’t anything odd. Now and then, a new species or people appeared through a rift, their homeworlds suddenly connected to the Million Gates and the outer world. But these people were different.

For one, the faction was too diverse to be some isolated civilization that had grown inside a Mystic Realm. Secondly, their methods were too advanced. The Muscle Brigade was among the best-equipped and most ferocious squads in the area, yet every clash with the invaders had been a costly endeavor.

Even when the Muscle Brigade overwhelmed them in numbers and levels, the invaders exacted a high cost before succumbing. And they were true zealots, though that might be because of the things that lived inside their bodies. Even now, they didn’t know where they came from or what their faction was called. They only knew what they could glean from the corpses.

Neither the researchers nor the thieves managed to crack their weird spatial tools either. Finding news of this world was simply a stroke of luck. Greatest Peak managed to ambush and kill a leader in one go, right when he was reading a star chart.

The only good news was that the Space Gate hadn’t stabilized just yet, giving them a few more years to prepare. Those squads who arrived were just at the E-grade, with the occasional early Hegemon squeezing through. The Muscle Brigade had been commanded to hunt down any squad they could in hopes of finding the Space Gate, but prospects didn’t look good.

Even with over a thousand similar squads having been sent into the Million Gates Territory by the recently formed alliance, they simply couldn’t find it. Not even the sages of the Heliophos Clan could glean its location according to Average. However, the issue wasn’t the chaotic territory.

The gate was shrouded, and not even their Monarchs could break it.

That could only mean one of two things. Either their enemies were extremely powerful or the System was aiding the invasion. Perhaps it was both. In either case, it was bad news. Yet the Muscle Brigade pressed on, delving deeper and deeper in the seemingly endless expanse of the Million Gates Territory. If they couldn’t prevent the invasion, they could at least hamper their efforts.

These advance scouts were working toward something, gathering intelligence and setting up outposts. The more scouts they could kill and preparations they could ruin, the better their position would be when all hell broke loose. Perhaps they could even delay the invasion for a couple of years, which would allow for more fortresses to be built.

That’s why they were on this cursed island infested by an endless number of insects, each one of which essentially carried a gastric bomb in their abdomen. Galau was scared enough that he was ready to strike at every shadow that moved, but he no longer felt discontent about joining these kinds of dangerous missions. He’d even volunteered for this one, wanting to use his unique ocular skills to aid his companions.

What he was doing had value, and even someone like him could make a small difference in these critical times. He might have been discarded by his clan, but the Allbright Empire was still his home. The hundreds of trillions of lives didn’t deserve to be swept up in this war. Galau had seen how sinister these people were.

Wherever they encountered locals, not a single life was spared.

“If not ambush, infiltration, then?” Bubbur ventured, scratching at his beard.

“No point in guessing,” Average said as he glanced back at the squad. “As long as we find what we’re looking for, we’re bound to get some answers.”

Galau nodded in agreement as he glanced at his friend. It was true what they say, heroes rise in troubled times. Just a few short years had passed, yet the loudmouth young master had transformed into a capable leader the Muscle Brigade willingly followed. Of course, his explosive growth in power helped solidify his position among these meatheads.

After all, while this chaotic place had its dangers, it also held uncountable opportunities. They’d lost more than half of their squad, but those that survived had gone through a baptism of fire that no training regimen could compare to. Average, in particular, had essentially been reborn through the inheritances and troves he’d survived.

Hopefully, they would get the chance to consolidate for a while longer. They had grown a lot, but were ultimately just E-grade warriors. An errant clash between captains could crush their souls. Only when they became Hegemons would they be able to equip proper Regalia, which would at least provide a semblance of safety in a large-scale war.

Hours passed as the squad crept closer, closing in on the camp they spotted from orbit. Oddly enough, the incessant chirping from the native beasts grew more and more sparse as time went on. Did the invaders have some method to repel them? Finally, they were within a few kilometers of their target, at which point the jungle was eerily silent.

Seeing as no critters were nearby, they activated a cloaking array before taking out their enhanced binoculars. The invaders had set up camp at the edge of a vast chasm, one so large it was visible from outer space. Galau had never seen anything like it before, and he even suspected some supreme warrior had tried cutting the huge planet in two during some ancient era.

The scar reached almost halfway through the world, and just looking at it from space had filled Galau with dread.

“What are they doing?” Bubbur whispered, glancing at Average. “Is it a trap?”

Galau frowned as well, feeling disconcerted by the scene. The invaders were right there in full display. A few stood at the edge of the chasm, apparently looking out at the vast beyond. A few others were simply sitting a few meters away from the others, mindlessly staring at the sky. It was a far cry from the ruthless warriors they clashed with before.

Average also looked confused, silently observing for a few more minutes. But there was simply no change. None of the invaders moved as much as an inch.

“Go!” Average eventually growled, and the squad rushed out like a rabid pack of wolves.

There was no need for words from that point on. Their group had been through over a hundred battles by now, and their cooperation was flawless. They soundlessly closed the distance, and a series of attacks rippled out with perfect timing. However, Galau couldn’t believe what he was seeing, as one enemy after another was ripped apart, not even lifting a finger to defend themselves.

“Stop!” Average shouted as he threw out two chains that grabbed the sole remaining invaders.

“I didn’t get any energy,” a warrior muttered, and Galau looked over with surprise as he stepped into the camp.

Some of them were already dead before?

“Uh, boss,” another warrior said as he walked out to the edge. “You need to see this.”

The others joined him, and were shocked by what they saw. An ancient fortress silently floated in the massive chasm, radiating a terrifying aura even if it was damaged by a huge scar. Had that thing just appeared? Because they should definitely have spotted that from orbit.

The construct wasn’t as large as the war fortresses the alliance was frantically building, but its quality was vastly superior. The aura it emitted was more overwhelming than anything Galau had ever encountered, including the Monarch that met with the captain a year ago. Its towers and walls were covered in unrecognizable scripts, and he didn’t recognize the design either.

This wasn’t something built by someone in the Zecia Sector. They simply didn’t have the capability to build something like this. It didn’t match the invader’s heritages either, which begged the question—how the hell did these invaders know where to find this thing? Where did it come from? And why were the invaders all dead or braindead? And who was powerful enough to damage this thing with a single attack?

A hum suddenly broke the silence just as runes lit up on one of the towers.

Something about the sound elicited a primal fear that threatened to break Galau’s spirit, and he wasn’t the only one. A few fell on their knees, while others desperately looked away. This wasn’t something they could get involved with.

“Run!” someone shouted, but it was too late.

* * *

Unique advantages like Hidden Nodes, Constitutions, Specialty Cores, Attuned Souls, and other kinds of enhancements were restrained in the Orom World, although not sealed altogether. Even those with less unique bloodlines than his could somewhat benefit from their abilities, and those with many such accrued advantages generally did better in the Wilderness.

That was why he wanted to open another Hidden Node before entering the Wilderness. Conversely, the Attribute Fruits in his Cosmos Sack would only provide some Contribution Points, but no real strength.

Zac could technically take the seed anywhere and at any time, but he had no idea how Draugr bloodlines worked. They might have unique requirements like his Void Emperor bloodline, so Zac decided to visit this area to improve his odds of success. Eventually, he saw a towering peak through the Miasmic haze, which meant he’d reached his destination.

It was the Blackink Mountain, a unique cultivation resource a few days’ travel from Samsara’s Edge.

There were two spots in the Death-attuned zones that held special opportunities, and one of them was the Blackink Mountain. The solitary peak was thousands of meters tall, and held 242 empowered cultivation caves, along with one mansion at the peak. The mansion was only accessible to Emerald Badges, and the eight peak-quality caves could only be booked by Jade Attendants and higher. But the rest was available for rent.

What made the Blackink Mountain different compared to the zones themselves, was the amazing density of Miasma and Dao. Even the worst of the caves at the foot of the mountain far surpassed the density you could enjoy in the center of any zone. Of course, nothing good came for free, and you had to pay Purchase Points to rent these caves.

Zac soon arrived at the foot of the mountain, where a few dozen houses were erected. It wasn’t a real settlement, but rather a place to wait in case the cave you wanted was occupied. Thankfully, few people were willing to pay for prolonged stays, only splurging when they were ready to push for a breakthrough.

“Welcome,” a bored-looking clerk said as Zac entered a small office. “Are you here to rent?”

“How is occupancy at the moment?” Zac asked. “I’m looking for a low-tier cave.”

“You’ve come at the right time. Few caves are occupied, but that will likely change in a few months,” the clerk said as he infused some energy into an array, which prompted almost one hundred small crystals to rise from a nearby box. “These are all the low-tier caves. Let me know which one you’re interested in and I will check its availability.”

Zac nodded in thanks and walked over to the gems. They weren’t Miasma Crystals, but rather small arrays from the looks of it. Zac infused a stream of Mental Energy into two crystals at random, and was immediately met by two small ripples of energy. Understanding the process, nine streams poured out of his mind, each one moving from one crystal to another.

After months of training, he’d mostly gotten used to his transformed soul. He had even gained another 800 points by simply stabilizing and strengthening his soul with the help of treasures. Altogether, he passed 15,000 Contribution Points without even trying, which was why he could afford a room at all.

“Is there anything amiss?” the clerk asked with confusion when Zac returned after just a few seconds.

“I’d like cave 183, please,” Zac said.

“Oh, alright,” the clerk said. “Cave #183 is luckily available, costing 1,000 Purchase Points per 12 hours. How long will you be staying?”

“One day is enough. I can extend the stay if need be, no?” Zac asked.

The crystals were a pretty interesting solution. The Blackink Mountain contained a tremendously complex array, and most of the caves held different Daos. Certainly, all of them contained the Dao of Death, but just a third of the chambers were Pure Death.

Other caves were filled with mixed-meaning paths, mostly those popular in the Undead Empire. Zac had even sensed a couple of crystals that held a Death-Conflict imprint. Ultimately, Zac chose one of the pure-meaning caves. As to why Zac chose #183, he couldn’t exactly put his finger on it. While its imprint was extremely similar to over a dozen others, it simply felt more comfortable.

He figured it had the best match with his Draugr side.

“You can extend your stay without leaving as long as no customer outside has booked the same cave. Your token will inform you when your time is up,” the clerk said, handing over a small plaque. “Your key. This will lead the way.”

Zac thanked the man and flashed away, making his way up the mountain following the signal in the key. It only took thirty minutes to reach his destination, an excavated cave whose entrance was covered in intricate runes. Zac couldn’t tell if the runes were part of an array, but they seemed like some sort of fusion between Death and the patterns around the spatial gates the Orom used.

Their meaning was too esoteric for Zac to decipher though, no matter if he relied on [Primal Polyglot] or any of his accrued knowledge. There wasn’t any indication that a cultivation haven waited inside, so Zac curiously stepped through the threshold. The moment he entered, a barrier activated behind him, quelling all sound and impressions from the outside. It once more felt like he had entered a sealed dimension, where there was only himself and the Dao.

Still, Zac was a bit confused as there weren’t any particularly impressive levels of energy around him, so he walked deeper into the mountain. Soon enough, he reached a densely engraved door, and he opened it to reach the core of the cultivation cave.

A wall of Pure Death slammed into him with such ferocity, Zac was pushed a few steps back and his eyes glazed over. Death. He had opened a door of no return, crossed the river of forgetfulness into an eternal domain of stillness. Death was always there, waiting, accepting all whether they wanted to or not. It was nothingness, it was release.

Zac shuddered as he regained his wits, but it was still with some trepidation he walked into the chamber. He initially wondered if he was too cheap, not springing for 12 hours in one of the middle-grade rooms. Now he wondered if he’d overestimated himself by coming to the Blackink Mountain at all. This environment bordered on the edge of what was harmful rather than helpful.

Still, the price was paid and Zac refused to turn back now. It wasn’t only a matter of cost either. He didn’t want to lose the sense of momentum he had gained after witnessing so many valiant warriors showcasing their skills. He wanted to use that adrenaline rush and hunger for power to fuel his breakthrough. There was no time to find some other place to settle down.

So, he let the gate close behind him, shrouding him in utter darkness. Zac was constantly beset by impressions as his body filled with Miasma, but while he welcomed the energy, he rejected the truths. Zac knew that he would probably be able to turn his Fragment of the Coffin into a Dao Branch if he stayed a week in this place.

However, such a breakthrough would be like the first ones he had back on Earth, where he was implanted with external concepts.

He didn’t want a Dao Branch based on the Daos fed into the cave by some array. He wanted a Dao Branch that was his alone, a branch attuned with his combat style, his class, and his path. Since Zac still hadn’t found all the answers he looked for in that regard, he couldn’t let himself get influenced by the curated truths that hid in the mountain.

Instead, he took out the pitch-black box and picked up the small seed within. It was no larger than an almond, but it felt like he was holding a small planet. The inner chamber didn’t let in a single wisp of light, but the seed was somehow darker than black, which made it stand out in the dark.

Zac looked down at the natural treasure with wonder, but the feeling only lasted a moment before he swallowed it. The effect was immediate, and Zac felt like he had become a black hole with the small seed as the core. He didn’t drag matter or energy into his body this time around though, but rather darkness.

It emerged from the ceiling, from the walls, from the floor. It flooded his body through every pore, frantically burrowing deeper. The gloom was turning it into an abyss, one he’d only seen in the eyes of Be’Zi before. Zac tried to channel it, to guide the changes the [Seed of Eldritch Awakening] was eliciting.

Except he was losing control. His body was no longer his own. It was becoming one with the Abyss. Even the shimmering cores in his Soul Aperture were drowned in pervasive dusk. The last thing he felt was a burning sensation through his veins before his consciousness faded.

43

DARKNESS PERFECTED

The Abyss was his home and his sanctuary, a womb where time and space held no meaning. He didn’t know where he ended and the Abyss began, but he knew that he was safe. There were no sensations, no suffering. He was one with the universe, and it was one with him.

Until one day, there was a ripple in the darkness, change in the stillness. It called for him.

He didn’t know how, and he didn’t know why, but he moved toward the beckoning call, his very core burning with urgency. He had been content being one with the Abyss forever, to revel in his absence of being. Although now that the darkness wasn’t alone, his soul cried for more.

It couldn’t be seen. It couldn’t be touched. That elusive nature only made it more palpable in this world of absence. And it was even more real than he.

He was plagued with questions. Who was he? What was his purpose? Concepts that were once foreign flooded his mind, both cursing and liberating him. The Abyss was still his home and part of his very being, but he knew it couldn’t answer the questions that now tormented him. He needed to leave.

The Abyss was fighting his efforts, like a parent reluctant to let their child go. The calls relentlessly grew more urgent the further he pushed on, borrowing the endless power of the Abyss to fight the Abyss. After all, as much as they were separate, they were one.

Space held no meaning initially, but now, he started to understand just how immense it was. It had never mattered before. Now, it filled him with curiosity. Each breath, he traversed vast distances, entering sections of the Abyss he didn’t know existed. He could feel mysterious things hiding in the darkness, glorious things.

But they would be there in the future as well, and their call was not as urgent as the one from above.

For the first time in his life, he felt exhaustion. Whatever he was doing was draining him. Yet his destination was still so far away. When he couldn’t draw enough power from his surroundings, he dug deeper into his personal Abyss. And the Abyss answered. A surge of power spread through his being, and he the exhaustion melted away.

His desire gave him strength, and each time he moved, he wasn’t as drained. The exhaustion was still there, but his will was unbreakable, his adamance unrelenting. Another call came from below, urging him to let go. Only suffering waited on the other side. It was telling him to come home.

He didn’t listen, and suddenly, the darkness was no more. The endless Abyss had given way to an endless sky, and millions of flickering lights welcomed his arrival. The Abyss represented perfection and unity, while the myriad colors forming a chaotic tapestry contained an equal truth. For the first time, he took a deep breath, and reality shuddered.

Crashing waves against ancient rocks mourned the loss, but what he’d gained outweighed what was given up. With a simple thought, he could join those flickering lights far in the sky… Instead, he walked onto the shores. He wasn’t the first. Two were already there, letting themselves be baptized by the new environment while leaving their mark on the sky.

As he arrived, their eyes turned to his. And in their eyes, he saw home, his origin—the endless Abyss, darkness perfected.

“Azol,” one of them said.

“Mez,” his other friend added.

“Eoz,” he answered. He didn’t know why, but it was true.

Nothing else was said. Nothing else was needed. The others would soon arrive. Until then, Eoz was content with standing at the shores, immersed in the low, soothing roar of the waves of home as he gazed upon the endless sky.

* * *

Zac took a shuddering breath as he woke up from the vision. He didn’t even get a chance to digest what he’d seen before he found himself in the middle of a torrent of energies. It felt like the ichor in his veins had been replaced with acid, but that was nothing compared to the burning pain in his throat.

A groan escaped his lips. He had to hold on. Something was changing in his body at the cost of tremendous amounts of energy. The cave was meant for early and Middle-stage Hegemons, but it was sucked dry by him all the same. Even then, it was nothing compared to the terrifying amounts of energy the Draugr called Eoz had consumed in his vision.

Each moment, the Draugr absorbed more energy than Zac had in his entire life. If Eoz sat here, he would most likely have destroyed the whole Blackink Mountain in a few seconds. Zac didn’t know whether the predecessor in his vision was an Autarch or something greater, but he was definitely not below Be’Zi, and far beyond the Orom or the Havarok Autarch.

All three Draugr in his vision were. It looked like those progenitors were just stargazing, but Zac felt like they themselves had been shifting the Heavens with their mere arrival. It made him wonder. Just what kind of place was the Abyssal Lake, to birth at least three such monsters?

Was it an Eternal Heritage? Did Draugr originate from an older era? And what were those things that hid in the lake just out of sight, each one emitting a world-ending aura that could snuff out an Autarch’s soul in an instant? After having seen it himself, he was no longer surprised that even A-grade cultivators could be wounded when exploring the Abyssal Lake.

Yet, he felt a sense of yearning when thinking back to that darkness. Even with the danger, he’d felt so safe there in the vision, at peace to a degree he had never experienced before. Even if he couldn’t visit the depths where Eoz originated from, he still wanted to enter the shallows of the Abyssal Lake, even if just to reclaim that sensation.

There were quite a few steps before he could reach that point. Most importantly, he needed to withstand the breakthrough. The energy in his body was getting crammed tighter and tighter as more poured in, and the [Quantum Gate] was swallowing as much as the rest of his body combined.

It somewhat confirmed his earlier theories, though he wasn’t in any state to celebrate.

Any time Zac thought he might explode from the pressure, his cells shuddered and swallowed a mouthful before the process started over anew. He had no idea how long it took, but the pull eventually subsided. Even then, the room was left almost completely bereft of energy, which was almost a relief for Zac as he took a shuddering breath and sat up.

The process was over, and he curiously turned his gaze inward, looking for the new Hidden Node. However, a few seconds passed, and Zac furrowed his brows in confusion. Something had certainly changed with his body, but he couldn’t find a node. Had the process failed, even after being shown the vision? Or was this something related to his Void Emperor bloodline?

He thoroughly scanned his body a few more times, but the only change he could spot was that his energy was denser compared to before. If his Miasma had been water, it’d transformed into a viscous jelly now. That change hadn’t impacted the speed with which he could move his energy though, so Zac turned to his Status Screens for answers.

Name: Zachary Atwood

Level: 129

Class: [E-Epic] Fetters of Desolation

Race: [D] Draugr – Void Emperor (Corrupted)

Alignment: [Earth] Port Atwood – Planetary Lord

Titles: […] Apex Progenitor, Pathstrider, Runebinder, Runic Erudition, Grand Fate

Limited Titles: Tower of Eternity Sector All-Star – 14th, The Final Twilight, Equanimity, Heart of Fire, Big Axe Gladiator

Dao: Branch of the War Axe – Early, Fragment of the Coffin – Peak, Fragment of the Bodhi – Peak

Core: [E] Duplicity

Strength: 13895 [Increase: 123%. Efficiency: 287%] 1,000

Dexterity: 5570 [Increase: 88%. Efficiency: 206%] 1,000

Endurance: 8981 [Increase: 109%. Efficiency: 275%] 1,000

Vitality: 7502 [Increase: 97%. Efficiency: 262%] 1,000

Intelligence: 2275 [Increase: 82%. Efficiency: 206%] 1,000

Wisdom: 4615 [Increase: 89%. Efficiency: 216%] 1,000

Luck: 540 [Increase: 106%. Efficiency: 229%]

Free Points: 0

Nexus Coins: [D] 933,662

While nothing had changed in the Status Screen, Zac finally found some answers in his Bloodline Screen.

Bloodline: [E – Corrupted] Void Emperor

Talent: Force of the Void – 50%, Void Zone

Bloodline Nodes: [E] Void Heart, [E] Spiritual Void, [E] Purity of the Void

Nodes: [E] Quantum Gate, [E] Adamance of Eoz

He still couldn’t find the Hidden Node while scanning his body, but it was right there next to [Quantum Gate], though that alone was a bit confusing. His new node wasn’t a Bloodline Node? That was impossible. He’d seen the very origin of the Draugr race, just as Catheya described it.

The Draugr corpse that had been trapped in that odd pocket of space for innumerable years, and who was the source of his own Draugr side, had to be a descendant of that Eoz. Perhaps an effect of his Void Emperor bloodline. Zac wasn’t sure whether you could have two bloodlines, but he hadn’t heard of anyone with an imbuement like that.

Generally, the more powerful bloodline would push the other one aside, though the repressed bloodline still hid in one’s genes. From there, it could pop up in a future generation if the main bloodline weakened. It could also provide various benefits right away, such as improved affinities.

In Zac’s case, it looked like his Draugr Hidden Nodes were categorized as normal nodes since they weren’t part of his main bloodline. If that had any ramifications down the road, Zac had no idea. For now, it looked like everything had turned out just fine. Seeing that [Adamance of Eoz] had been awakened and provided some sort of benefit, Zac closed the Status Screen.

Even now, the energy hadn’t returned to the chamber, and he took out a watch from his Cosmos Sack. He was worried he’d overstayed his visit, but the breakthrough had thankfully only lasted four hours. Something felt off though, and he took out his token just in case, and was immediately met with a shocking sight.

“What the hell?” Zac swore as he slapped the thing a few times to see if he could reset the values.

Opening the Hidden Node had provided a whopping 9,900 Contribution Points, yet he felt a surge of anger upon seeing his transaction history. For some reason, he’d been charged an extra day’s stay, which meant he had lost another 2,000 Contribution Points. Zac stewed in the desolate environment of his emptied-out cave for ten minutes before he rushed down the mountain.

“What’s going on?” Zac asked furiously the moment he entered the small office. “Is there something wrong with my cave?”

“How could that be?” the clerk said, though he looked at Zac with some shock in his eyes. “Young Master, you simply drained over two days’ worth of energy from the cave, forcing me to add to your tally.”

“What? If I absorbed two days’ worth of energy, I would have exploded. There must be something wrong with the cave.”

“I’m sorry, this is all automated,” the man said with a helpless shrug. “There are fail-safes to make sure insufficient energy won’t get in the way of a breakthrough, but you will be charged for all the extra energy that is infused into the chamber. If it’s any consolation, you got a bargain. In total, you used up 53 hours’ worth of energy, but you were only charged for 48.”

“Well, alright…” Zac said, taking a steadying breath. “So, the energy won’t come back in the chamber over the next two days?”

“I’m afraid not,” the clerk said with a shake of his head. “Unless you pay for more time.”

“Alright, I’m checking out then,” Zac shrugged and threw over the key.

It was pretty annoying to lose 2,000 Purchase Points out of nowhere, but he doubted the Orom would bother scamming people with a scheme like this. He must have absorbed a monstrous amount of energy during the vision, just like he usually did when evolving his bloodline. But he did make a mental note to never evolve his bloodline in a place like that.

With the amounts of energy his main bloodline consumed, he’d be so deep into debt that he would never be able to dig himself out of that hole.

His bloodline was a no-go, but it was still huge to get confirmation he really had Draugr Hidden Nodes. Perhaps he should try making friends with one of the half-blood Draugr in the Orom to glean more information. He’d avoided them until now out of fear of getting exposed, but even a half-blood should know about awakening Hidden Nodes.

But there was no hurry. Zac made his way back toward Samsara’s Edge as he tried to figure out the use of [Adamance of Eoz]. It was a bit annoying to explore his limits when his limits were restrained by the prison brand, though he did discover something interesting after taking out a Divine Crystal.

The Life-attuned energies inside were essentially poison, but Zac absorbed a small amount anyway. His old Hidden Nodes would take care of the invasive energy soon enough, but he wanted to test if his resistance had improved.

And it had.

Or, it was perhaps more apt to say his energy and his flesh refused to blend with the energy, making it harder for the Life-attuned energy to burrow deeper into its body. In no time at all, it was gobbled up by his [Void Heart], but even that was met with some resistance until Zac paved a path with a mental command. Curious, Zac kept experimenting, and the effect was essentially the same.

No matter if it was foreign energies scattered around him or infused into his body one way or another, he found his natural resistance had increased by a noticeable degree. This didn’t extend to physical or mental hits, but he was already plenty durable in those departments.

Even then, it somehow felt like this defensive ability was a side effect rather than the main use of [Adamance of Eoz]. He still remembered his escape from the Abyssal Lake vividly, how his will pushed him forward, breaking the fetters that kept him in the depths.

His pace kept increasing until he was in a full sprint toward the settlement, and he jumped onto the teleportation array when he arrived.

A moment later, Zac appeared next to the small coliseum, but he didn’t enter the building this time around. Instead, he set course due east after purchasing a small booklet in a nearby shop. Three days passed, and he reached a huge square arch standing on a hill. It was fifty meters wide, rising almost a hundred meters into the air, making it easily visible from a distance.

A few makeshift settlements were erected around the hill, and around fifty cultivators lounged in the area. It wasn’t few, but it wasn’t many either, considering that this was one of the entrances to the Wilderness.

“Oh, an undead warrior over here? Want to buy a missive on the local wildlife?” a beastkin asked as Zac closed in. “Just 100 Purchase Points. I have a High-quality Unholy Font as well in case you need it.”

“That’s okay,” Zac said with a shake of his head as he passed by.

The Unholy Font was a simple-enough necklace that essentially duplicated the effect of an Unholy Beacon. However, while the beacon transformed large swathes of land, an Unholy Font only generated a small cloud of Miasma. This allowed undead warriors to stave off the uncomfortable effect of Cosmic Energy without wasting any effort on their own.

However, Zac already had dozens of similar items in his Cosmos Sack, including Peak-quality ones that could be powered by Cosmic Crystals to exude a shroud even larger than his [Fields of Despair]. Furthermore, it looked like his newfound ability was somewhat efficient at staving off ambient energy as well, though he couldn’t be considered completely insulated like when using [Void Zone].

Zac wasted no time in stepping through the gate. His surroundings twisted, and a surge of warmth emanated from his left hand. A moment later, he appeared by two large rocks in a vast savannah. Only now did he realize how quiet the Orom World was in general, suddenly being subjected by constant roars from dozens of different types of beasts.

Still, Zac cracked his neck as he eagerly took out one of his spare axes. He hadn’t fought for almost half a year, and between the almost constant threat of death after killing Uona and being trapped in this weird place, he’d built up a whole lot of stress. Certainly, he needed to figure out more about his congealed energy and how to progress his class quest.

But those issues weren’t as urgent as unleashing a wave of carnage before he went mad.

44

ADAMANCE

The accumulated stress and inspiration filled Zac with an overflowing momentum that urged him to rush out and start whaling on the poor beasts in the area. It almost felt like when the Splinter of Oblivion had messed with his mind, though Zac kept himself in check a bit longer, trying to get used to the changes in his body. His attributes had already been adjusted, and he now had over 1,900 Strength.

He felt more in tune with himself, even if his attributes had become skewed again, and the energy coursed through his body more naturally. Zac tried activating [Gorehew], and this time the prison brand didn’t prevent anything. A large jagged edge, almost identical to when he’d used it in the Twilight Ocean, appeared in front of his weapon.

But its strength was hollow.

Conjuring the blade cost as much Miasma as it used to, but the brand on his hand siphoned off more than 80% of the energy, leaving a husk of a skill compared to its original strength. He’d seen the same phenomenon during the fights in the coliseum, though their skills had probably been drained of more than 95% of their energy.

Apart from its weakened state, Zac felt there was something different about the skill, and he curiously rapped his knuckles against the large blade. The jagged edge shuddered a bit before a powerful rebound rippled back into his hand. It was hard to be certain since he was still unaccustomed to using skills in his limited form, but Zac believed the blade was a bit sturdier than it should be.

Was this the effect of his Draugr node, [Adamance of Eoz]?

The node somehow made his energy more congealed. Did that effect extend to skills? But what did ‘adamance’ refer to? Zac inspected the blade for a few seconds before he dispersed the skill. He had plenty of time to figure out how things worked. Besides, he’d always been a practical learner.

He was tired of just standing around, and he finally stepped out from his hidden spot. A small ripple around him meant he was no longer hidden from the surroundings, and he spotted a few bright blobs of life closing in on him.

There were nine gates in total that led into the Wilderness, each one working the same way. They sent you to a random location in the first band of the Wilderness, and you would be protected until you took a few steps from the starting position.

Just like the Orom World, there were various attunements in the bands, though the energies weren’t nearly as palpable as in the cultivation zones. It was just about enough to create different environments while accommodating more types of beasts. Zac had chosen the gate that currently led to an area that bordered fire and nature.

At the edge of the savannah, he could barely make out a mountain range where flying lizards, golemoid species, and hundreds of other beasts made their home. There were Miasmic zones as well up to the fifth band, but Zac wasn’t looking to find inspiration from Death-attuned beasts.

Of the nine total bands, the first four were safe zones, which meant you weren’t allowed to clash with other cultivators. But farther in, more than half of each zone was lawless, and you could even rob other prisoners. The only safety net was that you would be teleported back rather than killed upon receiving a lethal attack, at the cost of some Purchase Points, of course.

It was just like PvE and PvP zones in an online game, though Zac had no intentions of heading that deep. In general, you’d need to have the skill equivalent of a Middle to Late Hegemon to avoid becoming helpless prey in the fifth band. If you managed to cross the ninth and reach the edge of the Wilderness, you would essentially have pushed your path of slaughter to the point you should be able to confirm your Dao.

Going by what he’d heard, Zac wasn’t confident he’d be able to make it that far even if he relied on his Void Energy and its unrestrained attacks.

For now, Zac was content with staying in the first and perhaps the second band. He cracked his neck as a pack of animals closed in on him. After thirty seconds, he spotted the beasts even without his Draugr sight—there was four beasts that looked a bit like warthogs. Apart from being three meters long, they were also a bit leaner, and their green fur resembled long swaying stalks of grass.

Their tusks were also noticeably bigger than the species on Earth, and the two larger specimens even sprouted small horns.

The pitch-black coffin of his replacement weapon appeared on his back, and four black-and-green chains slithered out like snakes as Zac calmly walked toward the animals. The four beasts flickered, and Zac whistled with surprise when they appeared just fifty meters away from him, having gained a huge surge of speed as they barreled toward him.

At the same time, Zac felt a tightness around his feet, and he glanced down to see the knee-high grass twine around his ankles. These beasts actually possessed skills? Having skills at the early E-grade meant they had a decent heritage. Zac wasn’t too worried.

The grass had been empowered, but it still wasn’t able to withstand the two chains that lashed out, dripping corrosive liquid after being empowered by [Blighted Cut]. Simultaneously, the remaining chains shot forward as a shroud of darkness spread out from Zac’s body. The warthogs had almost completely blended with the swaying grass, but their strong life signatures couldn’t stay hidden from Zac’s Draugr gaze.

He swung his axe to the side, striking a beast that tried to flank him. It seemed shocked about being exposed so easily, though its reflexes were extremely quick. It tilted its head to block the attack with its tusk, and it clearly planned to use its hefty body to crush him.

Zac’s initial instinct was to forcibly throw the beast away, but he found himself physically overwhelmed. Being physically overpowered by some random pig would take some getting used to, but Zac quickly adapted. Instead, he fluidly shifted his position, avoiding the brunt of the leap while delivering a ruthless punch in the hog’s side as it passed him by.

At the same time, his chains aimed for the eyes of the remaining beasts, which made them scream in fear and rapidly change course. A pang of danger blared in the back of his head, but the three small skeletons had already appeared. A spectral coffin rose to protect his back, and a smattering sound echoed across the area as thousands of stalks of grass failed to pierce the barrier.

It looked like these hogs could control the grass more freely than Zac expected.

Thankfully, Zac’s reinforcements started to appear by this point, as [Deathmark] had already covered the area. Three of the wraiths were instantly destroyed by ferocious headbutts or vicious bites, but it gave Zac an opportunity to launch some strikes of his own. Meanwhile, one of the smaller warthogs rammed straight into the final axe wraith. Zac’s brows rose in surprise when it actually blocked the rush with its axe.

Cracks appeared on the spectral axe upon being hit by one of the tusks, but it held long enough for the wraith to counter with a slice that opened up a shallow wound on the beast’s haunch. The warthog wailed as the corrosive mist started entering its body, but Zac was more interested in the wraith that started dissipating.

It was just like he had experienced before with [Gorehew]. Judging by how much his skills had been restrained, the specter shouldn’t have been able to withstand the hit. An E-grade beast with an average of 2,000 attributes should have crushed it with such a direct attack. But the specter had become more durable, allowing it to survive just long enough to unleash a counter.

Not only that, the empowering effect seemed to be greater than when he summoned the jagged edge by the entrance. One time might have been a miscalculation, but two times pretty much confirmed it. [Adamance of Eoz] didn’t seem to directly improve his offense or defense, but it made his energy and energy constructs sturdier.

Various uses flashed through his mind, from withstanding powerful Daos to wasting less energy conjuring defensive barriers. However, Zac still couldn’t figure out exactly how to control it and the hogs weren’t willing to let him ponder on it as they tried to pincer him.

Zac found himself hounded from every direction, with thousands of razor-sharp blades of grass adding insult to injury. He was nearly overwhelmed, if not for the powerful defensive ability of [Profane Exponents] and the improved durability of his wraiths, he would have racked up some nasty wounds.

There was no time to ponder on his nodes or improve his Inexorable Stance. Simply staying afloat was a struggle, and he furiously struck with all weapons in his arsenal in an effort to seize the tempo. Thankfully, this was just the beginning of the first band, and the hogs only had so many tricks up their proverbial sleeves.

As he grew more accustomed to the current state of his body, Zac gradually switched from avoiding attacks to going on the offensive. He figured out that it was the smaller hogs that controlled the grass, while the horned ones focused on physical attacks. Soon enough, he managed to separate the two groups, and he ended the two mage-hogs in an instant with a ferocious swing of [Gorehew] empowered by his Dao Branch.

Same as with the skills, he found most of his Mental Energy and Dao entering the prison brand, making Zac swear with annoyance. Was it perhaps the warriors in the Wilderness that contributed the energy and Dao needed to keep the Orom World running?

With only two hogs and no grass attacks to deal with, Zac managed to capture the third one with his chains. Its fur had already become mottled by the corrosion all around them, but its suffering was over when Zac activated the finishing strike of [Blighted Cut] to unleash three shockingly sharp strikes.

From there, it was just a matter of time before the final hog was killed, leaving a panting Zac in a large ring of corroded grass. The beasts hadn’t managed to leave any big wounds, but he was covered in small, stinging cuts. Zac ate a common healing pill, surprised at how much resistance some random beasts at the first band could put up. These kinds of beasts were the ones Zac usually slaughtered by the thousands without breaking a sweat.

Then again, their cooperation had been decent at best, full of flaws to exploit. Meanwhile, their attacks were choreographed and their grass control more annoying than lethal. Their short-lived advantage almost exclusively came from their superior attribute pool, and that alone had been enough to cause a headache, even with his Peak-quality skills helping out.

Was this what it was like fighting him? Having more skill and talent but being roughhoused by raw attributes.

Zac shook his head and moved on, not bothering with the carcasses. They were ultimately just early E-grade beasts, their bodies not worth anything. The amount of kill energy they provided was beyond pitiful, and Zac would have to fight for years to gather the energy required for breaking open a single node.

Of course, he hadn’t come here for levels. He’d come here to explore his new node and to work on his quest. If possible, he also wanted to work on his skills and stances. There were both free and rentable facilities for evolving skills in the Orom World, but there was no rush. He wanted to first gather more inspiration. Meanwhile, Zac had encountered an issue upon opening his Quest Screen.

[Desperation’s End (Class): Extinguish one million souls. Reward: Desperation’s End. (0/1,000,000)]

He’d just killed four beasts, yet the progress remained zero. Zac was certain the beasts were real, rather than some sort of constructs or illusions. He even sensed the beasts’ souls dissipating soon after he killed them. Even his Draugr-vision couldn’t see souls, but his empowered soul had given him a more refined sensitivity toward Mental Energy.

Those hogs had souls, Zac was certain of it. He was way too far gone down the road of slaughter to reflect upon the moral implications of this discovery, and was more curious about what he needed to do to progress the quest. Luckily, the savannah wasn’t lacking beasts, and he spotted a huge, furry centipede slithering toward him through the grass.

A few minutes later, five bloody sections of the insect were strewn across the floor, with the remaining part of the centipede feebly struggling against the Dao-empowered chains. After failing to unload a salvo of poison, it succumbed to its grievous wounds, and Zac closed his eyes as he sensed the weak fluctuations by its head.

The air screamed as Zac’s axe ripped through the empty space where he’d felt the weak mental fluctuations, but it didn’t make a difference. The feeling was gone, and his progress remained at zero. Just how was he supposed to extinguish a soul? Did he need to learn a soul-killing Mentalist skill to progress?

He certainly had some free spots in his pathways, but was reluctant to fill them with random junk. Besides, he was almost certain there was some trick to it.

Zac kept going, and found himself in a pitched battle with two green panthers. He kept trying to restrain and catch them, but they refused to be sucked into the momentum of his Inexorable Stance. Their Dexterity had to be at least three time’s his own. He barely saw their forms as they flashed by, leaving small wounds or a destroyed specter in their wake.

The Inexorable Stance he had been so proud of while traveling the Twilight Ocean utterly failed to restrain them. Death might be inexorable, but his stance clearly hadn’t captured the essence of that fact just yet. As he tried to force an opening with his chains and axe, he thought back to Pavina, and how she’d ruthlessly dismantled the defenses of her enemy in the arena.

She walked the path of Death just as he did, yet her lethality was so much greater than his, even with Zac’s accumulated advantages. It wasn’t that her class was so different from his either. She had used a ghastly avatar that controlled ropes of darkness and had used Pure Death as a poison, similar to his [Blighted Cut] or [Deathmark].

Pavina hadn’t used any pure offensive skills like [Gorehew] or [Nature’s Edge] at all. Although, she almost made it seem that way. It was like she had become death incarnate. Why would death need to wait for its victims? She was the ender of all, destroyer of life. As much as the warrior had struggled, she was the one who adjudicated his fate.

Zac felt that was the key, a missing ingredient in his stance. Even if he managed to partly incorporate his path into his combat style, allowing him to restrain his enemies and control the momentum, he could definitely improve his lethality. Why should the spider hide at the edge of the net, watching its prey slowly tire itself out?

Even if the prey was too powerful to take out in one bite, Inexorable Stance should not only welcome them into the arms of eternity, it should push them into the Abyss. He needed to become the master of death with the help of his axe.

His attacks gradually grew quicker as one scene after another from the coliseum flashed through his mind. Zac let death guide him, and as his attacks became more condensed, and their restraining efficacy improved. The more complete his stance grew, the more preoccupied the panthers became with simply staving off death and staying alive.

Their hesitance was the nail in the coffin. With a wet gurgling yowl, one of the two panthers were impaled by a chain, its wound sizzling from the corrosive acid that dripped from the links. Seeing its mate getting skewered pushed the surviving panther into a frenzied rage, and it lunged straight for him with such speed, Zac was pushed to the ground, though he managed to unleash a swing that ripped open the belly of the beast.

Zac was drenched in a flood of blood and viscera, but he kept his cool, conjuring a barrier just before a set of razor-sharp teeth dug into his throat. A growl escaped his lips as he pushed the beast away, and two streams of Mental Energy entered his axe, flooding Zac with bloodlust and Dao.

The beast was already on death’s door after losing most of its innards, but death didn’t wait around as a slash split it clean in two from nose to tail. A small sputtering of kill energy entered his body, but Zac ignored it as he opened the Quest Screen. Just as he hoped, the screen showed (1/1,000,000).

He’d felt it upon delivering that final strike. His Dao-braided strike crashed into the panther’s skull, destroying its soul before it had a chance to dissipate. A moment later, some minute flakes had disappeared into his body, though Zac couldn’t see where they went. Perhaps, it was an offering to the formation of [Desperation’s End], or perhaps it was just some soul fragment that flew in his direction by chance.

In either case, he found the solution. It was a bit gristly. He would have to crack a whole lot of skulls to unlock his new skill. Thankfully, the Wilderness wasn’t lacking in targets judging by the incessant cries, and he was awash with ideas on how to improve his two stances. He had nothing better to do until he gathered enough Oblivion Energy, so Zac shook off the blood that covered him from head to toe and walked deeper into the wild.

It was time to get back to basics. One man and his axe against the world.

45

CAT AND MOUSE

“Never have I seen such a flighty bastard,” K’Rav swore. “You’ve been reading that thing for months now. Strength comes from pushing forward and seizing what’s yours, not cowering in a corner.”

The goblin was sitting on a sofa in the study, opened books strewn all around him. It was the fifth time this day it had complained, but Ogras didn’t care.

“You think I’m like you bastards, ready to jump straight into the abyss?” Ogras snorted. “There is no way I’m going to blindly cultivate some method made by you lunatics. I need to understand it better before making a decision. Besides, I have still not completely healed from those cursed energies I was forced to endure from your so-called safe path.”

“Cultivating the Spiritlock Physique would greatly alleviate that problem,” K’Rav said. “And then we could get on with the important business.”

Ogras only rolled his eyes before he turned back to the scroll. It was true, the goblin elder, Rasata, had created a terrifying technique that would give you a constitution called the Spiritlock Physique. For every stage you mastered, you would be able to seal one more spirit in your body and gain part of its strength.

There were a few problems with the technique though, apart from how it was recorded. Rasata posited that the limit would be nine spirits in total, but she only managed to infuse five into her body. She had also deduced the sixth layer of the [Spiritlock Technique], but it was unproven and, according to her, “a bit risky.”

Coming from these lunatics, that was saying something.

He had stayed in the central tower for months now, and the more he read about the history of the Ra’Lashar Goblins, the more horrified he became. He thought he understood just how far people would go for power, but he’d never heard of a civilization as crazed as these people. If they had been part of integrated space, the Ruthless Heavens would probably just have blasted their whole planet to preemptively avert disaster.

Conjuring the Qriz’Ul spirits from the Lost Plane had been the main cultivation method of these goblins, but inviting that madness into their lives only scratched the surface. The elders, the powerful families, even the netherblasted beggars on the street had delved into crazy and unorthodox methods to further strengthen themselves. Not one of them had any respect for their lives, and few ever died of old age.

Some experiments were a success, such as Rasata’s [Spiritlock Technique]. Others had devastating consequences, and the Qriz’Ul uprising was simply the calamity that finally did them in. There had been similar incidents in the past. And even if the cursed beings of the Lost Plane had failed, something else would have killed these madmen soon enough.

Then again, Ogras would never admit it to the annoying ghost, but he was thoroughly impressed by what those long-snouted goblins had accomplished. Their civilization had only started down the road of cultivation 16,000 years before their demise, yet they’d raised over twenty Monarchs, though only half were still alive by the uprising. And that was without the assistance of the Ruthless Heavens.

The whole tower was filled with taboo techniques and weird experiences of these mad scientists. Techniques that would cause a storm on the outside. Figuring out which techniques were madness and which ones were inspired genius was the hard part. Certainly, those methods requiring taboo practices, such as large-scale sacrifice, were easy to avoid, as were the techniques that had terrifying side effects.

For example, one of the Warlock Elders had managed to turn himself into a conduit for some sort of eldritch horror, gaining a huge amount of power. However, anyone below a Monarch who came within one hundred miles of him was assaulted by whispers that gradually turned them into murderous lunatics. The elder couldn’t even join the final battle since he caused more damage to his own people than the enemy.

These blasted goblins also didn’t have any proper system for recording their techniques. They were like children constantly looking for the next new thing. Few bothered fixing the imperfections of their creations. They simply kept pushing further down the road until they exploded or turned insane.

Thankfully, Rasata was one of the few who worked to perfect her [Spiritlock Technique]. Certainly, the reason for that wasn’t benign or anything. Rasata had been madly in love with the Grand Warlock, Hoso Kat’Rov. However, he’d spurned her advances, citing her nose being too small to marry someone of his standing. Love had turned into hatred, and she escaped into her research.

Her ultimate goal was to perfect the [Spiritlock Technique], and have it supplant Hoso Kat’Rov’s spirit-controlling technique as the premier cultivation method of the Ra’Lashar goblins. Unfortunately, that hate-induced drive turned her cultivation manual into a weird mix of angry poems, a list of pranks and failed assassination attempts on the Grand Warlock, and the actual methods to cultivate the Spiritlock Constitution.

“Why don’t you go lure some more critters into the trap if you’re bored? I still haven’t completed the final brand required to enter this place the above-board way,” Ogras muttered as he felt the incessant stare of the ghost.

“You want even more free labor?” K’Rav snorted. “How about you hold up your end of the bargain, instead? That would solve both our problems.”

“Give me a break,” Ogras said. “I haven’t even finished going over these mad ramblings, and you want me to sink my teeth into that thing? That might take over a year.”

“A year?” K’Rav guffawed. “Even if you studied for a century, you’d only be able to grab at the edge of the miracle we created. As long as you finish that thing—”

“I know, I know,” Ogras responded with a lazy wave. “When that thing is completed, the clouds will part and phoenixes and dragons will dance to celebrate our glory.”

“Keep pretending,” K’Rav spat. “I saw you almost drown in your own drool when you looked through the notes.”

“Your flag is a bit impressive, but I’m not in any hurry,” Ogras shrugged as he kept reading.

The goblin snorted in dissatisfaction, turning toward the windows overlooking the ruins of his former empire. Ogras glanced at the ghost before continuing his reading, though his mind was only partly occupied with the Spiritlock Physique. The ancient bastard said he was brought back by the System, but after having witnessed the weird methods stored in this tower, Ogras wasn’t so sure.

He hadn’t found any damning evidence over the past year, but that didn’t matter. Ogras trusted his guts, and they were telling him that this Warlock who refused to leave for the underworld was up to no good. And even if he was wrong, so what? He’d rather kill a thousand innocent ghosts than risk his little life.

Ogras was even hesitant to finish the sixth and final key to this place and reap the rewards, afraid that unlocking the tower would also unlock the ghost’s power. K’Rav seemed to understand his misgivings, though he pretended to be oblivious. He’d even insinuated that he would be happy to pass on as long as the mission was completed, but that only made Ogras more unwilling.

So, they played their game of cat and mouse, each one pushing their agenda. Parts of him screamed to simply take his winnings and leave while he was still ahead. But even if he gained a lot from this place, there was still more to go. He’d already decided to take the gamble, even if he was betting with his life.

That thing was really something, but it couldn’t be finished without K’Rav’s help.

* * *

The silvery leaves ripped through the air, causing a swirl of frozen air as they shot toward the two four-armed yeti who kept harassing him from a distance. The storm pelted against his skin, but his [Innate Ward] empowered by the Fragment of the Bodhi and improved durability from [Adamance of Eoz] was enough to withstand the brunt of it.

It was lucky as well, as he had his hands full when dealing with the ice pangolin that kept launching extremely sharp scales under the guise of the storm. Its control was sublime, reminding Zac of Travo Raso’s sword array that he suffered inside multiple times over the last months.

However, while the Radiant Temple employee’s array adhered to his fusion of the Dao of the Stars and the Dao of the Sword, this pangolin had instilled it with ice and wind, perhaps forming something akin to a Fragment of the Storm. Speed, ferocity, and destructive capabilities, it had it all.

And the two damn yeti underlings magnified the danger.

Yet Zac pushed on. These beasts represented a threshold, being one of the strongest groups at the edge of the second band. Being able to defeat these guys without relying on his Void Energy would mean he’d reached a level where he could match most early Hegemons in this place. And the Orom World didn’t bring in useless people.

Barely being able to fight his way through the first two bands of the Wilderness in eight months didn’t seem too impressive to Zac, but it was apparently quite shocking. Most of the Hegemons he sparred against had become a lot more courteous after seeing his rapid progress, almost treating him like an equal. According to them, it usually took well over a century of slowly polishing one’s technique to reach this level.

It felt like some sort of vindication. He was a mortal, unable to cultivate or absorb energy nearly as quickly as others. His Dao Control was adequate at best, and that was only thanks to his soul cultivation. Without it, Zac would be beyond awful due to his zero affinities.

But he was a rarely seen genius when it came to combat, showcasing a marvelous ability to integrate his Dao insights into his technique. He still hadn’t managed to break his losing streak at the coliseum with either of his two races, but that was mostly because he wanted to fight people who could inspire further breakthroughs with his skills and stances. And those kinds of people weren’t weak.

Zac weaved through the storm that raged around him, his steps as inscrutable and chaotic as the unlimited possibilities of life. The pangolin repeatedly failed to trap him or exploit his patterns, because there was no pattern to the Evolutionary Stance. Suddenly, he made his move, taking advantage of the yetis being preoccupied with his Dao-infused attacks.

They had conjured a wall of ice to protect themselves, which forced them to split their attention, prompting the raging storm to weaken. Hundreds of engraved trees rose from the ground, and their vibrant lifeforce pushed the blistering cold of the tundra away. Zac disappeared a moment later, fusing with the tree that appeared right next to him.

A moment later, the tree was ripped apart by the pangolin’s scale array, but Zac had already been transported to another tree. Teleporting through the trees of [Ancestral Woods] barely produced a ripple, and it was hidden among the constant burst of life the other trees expelled.

The tree behind him started to rapidly wither after having fulfilled its purpose, and Zac was already moving in on his targets. Only when two clouds closed in on them did the yeti realize their target was no longer trapped in the storm, and they spun around to meet the attack.

A small golden palace appeared in the sky as hymns of Arcadia drenched the surroundings in Life. Meanwhile, a bottomless ravine appeared beneath, almost sucking Zac’s soul inside when he looked upon it. The space between the two visions was just a hairline, but that thin line was an uncrossable divide that shot toward the beasts.

A ferocious storm slammed into the Peak proficiency [Rapturous Divide], but Zac was full of purpose now that he was so close to reaching his goal. The boost of [Adamance of Eoz] rose to match his desire, allowing his skill to withstand the hailstorm long enough to break apart the defensive runes and grievously wound the two.

The beasts were thrown into their own fortifications from the attack, but still, they were alive. However, Zac appeared right by them, and the keening cry of his axe was amplified by the ice as he cut straight through the neck of one yeti. A pang of danger made him flash away, and two sharp explosions rippled out in quick succession.

It was some sort of icy ball that had burst from the dying beast and almost instantly exploded into a thousand razor-sharp spikes. The spikes melted when they hit the second yeti, but Zac found himself punctured full of wounds even after dodging with [Earthstrider].

The skin around his wounds turned blue, as he was flooded with chilly Dao, but [Adamance of Eoz] prevented it from spreading and sealing his mobility. The pangolin was already rushing toward him, and Zac flashed forward, unleashing a furious barrage at the remaining yeti before he was pincered again.

The beast was desperately defending itself by conjuring one skill after another, but with every clash, Zac’s technique subtly changed, evolving toward something that could kill the beast. A sharp pain flared up his side as a scale swiped him, but Zac endured the agony as he finished off the second mage by cleaving its head in two with an Axe-Bodhi fusion.

With only the pangolin to worry about, Zac entered a ferocious melee where he only relied on [Nature’s Edge], [Earthstrider], and [Innate Ward] to fight the beast averaging 2,500 attributes and possessed powerful control abilities. He mostly stayed in his Draugr form the past months, but he had still made great strides with his Evolutionary Stance as well.

Each movement was a rebirth, each swing a new creation. One wound after another appeared on the pangolin’s body as its scales kept getting destroyed. The leader of the tundra ferociously fought back, but it kept getting pushed further into a disadvantage. If not for the berserking brand on its body, it would have fled already.

Eventually, the beast fell after Zac managed to strike its head twice, breaking into its skull and instantly killing it.

Two of the three beasts had their brains destroyed, the inadvertent result of grinding his Draugr quest for months on end. He was no stranger to gory scenes after all he’d done since the integration, but the gruesome task was starting to get to him a bit. He even considered giving up on the class quest and acquire a finisher somewhere else.

But after discussing the task with Travo Raso, Zac came to better understand the purpose of such a quest. It was to prepare him for the future.

The further you walked on the road of cultivation, the harder it would become to kill your enemies. First of all, those who didn’t possess the means and instincts to survive in the Multiverse died before reaching any great heights. Those who survived possessed all kinds of methods to escape with their lives intact, even when overwhelmed by a superior foe.

Using teleportation talismans was just the most common method, and it had a lot of limitations. There were also skills, clone methods, illusions, and all kinds of other things. Some Late Hegemons could even survive by hiding their soul in a drop of blood while their body was destroyed. This wasn’t a huge issue for Zac’s human side, where he struck hard and fast, leaving nothing behind.

But it was different for his Fetters of Desolation class.

Whittling down one’s enemy was an effective method to win, but it meant some of your targets were bound to escape. The real world wasn’t like the Wilderness, where every beast was unable to back down. However, there was one surefire remedy to prevent any escape method—destroy one’s soul.

Only extremely rare techniques like Aia Ouro’s Thousand Lights Avatar could survive something like that, and not without paying a price. In a true life-and-death battle, most warriors would therefore try to strike the soul first and the core second. Destroying a Cosmic Core would cripple a cultivator, which was the second-best thing to actually killing an enemy. But that would still leave you exposed to retaliation.

It was this mindset that the System had been trying to instill into Zac and his Inexorable Stance, one kill at a time. Now, that fighting style had spilled over to his human side. He’d been a bit worried about the moral implications, but Travo Raso and his friend had laughed for a good minute when he raised his concerns about preventing people from reincarnating or entering the afterlife.

Since then, the two had called him Little Lord, short for Little Lord of the Underworld, for his presumed ability to dictate life after death. In truth, not even Divine Monarchs possessed the power to utterly annihilate a soul to the point reincarnation or resurrection was prevented.

Zac was exhausted, and started running away from the battlefield. He’d proved himself already, and there was no time to linger around until some other apex predator of the second band arrived. A huge grilled flank appeared in his hand as he ran, and he started devouring the meat like a starving ghost.

The benefits his most recent Hidden Node provided were amazing, improving his strength in so many ways. However, it was incredibly draining, and he still hadn’t found a way to turn it off. He could somewhat strengthen or weaken the effect by altering his mental state, but emotions were not so easily controlled. He still hadn’t found the limits of what it could provide, since it was impossible for him to enter a true life-and-death struggle in the Orom World.

Fighting for a few hours now left him winded in a way he had never felt since becoming a cultivator, and absorbing Cosmic Energy or Miasma didn’t help. The only thing he found to alleviate the exhaustion was devouring High-grade food, forcing him to constantly run around with mountains of easily-held dishes. Sometimes when the beasts refused to relent, he’d been forced to fight while stuffing his face with his free hand.

Zac kept running for another ten minutes until space rippled around him. He’d finally reached the third band, which meant he would be able to skip the first two bands next time he came here. Of course, Zac prayed that wouldn’t be necessary. One year had passed since he evolved his soul and last used his Oblivion Energy.

He still hadn’t reached the limits of what he could store, but he was getting close. It was time to make his final preparations before he enacted his prison break.

46

HUBRIS

Zac looked down at his hands with incredulity and despair as the last embers of Oblivion dissipated in front of him. Soon, just a depression in reality remained, and a moment later, there was nothing. The searing pain that ran from his head down his arms was nothing compared to the agony of defeat.

He’d failed.

Sixteen months. He had saved up Oblivion Energy for sixteen months, yet that wasn’t enough. The full-powered Annihilation Sphere only managed to tear a hole in space no larger than a hand, and it closed so quickly, the deadly ball of destruction didn’t have time to provide access. Even if he’d been gutsy enough to push through the small rip with [Abyssal Phase], he would have been torn apart before even entering it.

His thoughts had ground to a halt as his emotions ran amok, but he soon pushed down the burgeoning panic as he disappeared, transformed into an abyssal wraith. The surroundings of the Death-attuned zone turned into a blur, and he crossed tens of thousands of meters in an instant. Still, that wasn’t enough, and he kept going, thankful he’d plotted an escape path in case of failure.

Zac couldn’t be certain, but unleashing a three-meter-tall ball of utter destruction was bound to raise some eyebrows if anyone saw or sensed it. He wanted to be far, far away by the time anyone came to investigate. He only deactivated his skill five minutes later, at which point he’d used up more than half of his Void Energy.

He returned into his corporeal form in the crown of a tree with extremely dense foliage, and jumped down with a prayer mat under his arm like he’d been sitting in the tree cultivating. He’d passed through a good chunk of a zone in a short few minutes, something that would normally have taken him days.

It should be impossible to connect him to the now-distant event, unless the Orom itself was investigating. Zac kept going for another few hours until he reached his cultivation cave where he secluded himself, his eyes and ears peeled for any response. Hours turned to days, his nerves continuously fraying, but no Emerald Attendant came to take him in. Neither did his prisoner brand act up, and Zac finally let himself relax after a week had passed.

However, while it didn’t look like he was in trouble, Zac found himself gazing out from the window he’d carved inside the dead tree, his mind bereft of purpose and direction. This was supposed to be it. He had spent the last four months squeezing everything he could out of this place, from gathering all kinds of treasures to furiously sparring with the many elders.

It was to the point that he’d raised some eyebrows and started some rumors, and had almost been drowned in piles of fate tokens. He had known his actions were a bit suspicious, but he couldn’t help himself with so many treasures available all around him. Now, it was all for nothing, and he found himself stuck in this place after acting so mysterious. It felt like a thousand eyes were trained on the tree he hid inside.

He had already spent eighteen months in the Orom World, far longer than what he anticipated or planned. Yet he didn’t find himself any closer to escaping now than when he just arrived. If anything, he felt further away from returning to Earth than ever, as one escape plan after another had fallen through. Now, he wasn’t even certain what to do. His bloodline wasn’t enough, and not even the Remnants could pave the way to freedom.

Should he try getting relegated and hope there were weaknesses to exploit over there? No. Those people were even more tightly controlled than the cultivators of Orom World. He would only be sending himself there to suffer. Zac desperately searched for solutions, but hadn’t managed to come up with anything over the last week, let alone now. He was stuck.

Despair threatened to swallow Zac whole, imagining himself forced into desperate cultivation, struggling to keep up with his odd constitution until he finally succumbed as so many had before him. Until now, he somewhat considered himself above those around him, gifted with supreme fate. This might have been a prison for others, but not for him. This was just an opportunity.

The hubris.

No! Zac shook his head as his abyssal eyes regained their clarity. He refused to give up. If the force of the Annihilation Sphere had been too weak, then he simply needed to boost it. If he increased the output tenfold, the spatial tear should be bigger and more stable. He needed to strengthen his soul and his Dao to make it happen.

It might take a while to push his Fragment of the Coffin to become a Branch of Death, but he was confident he could accomplish that here, even without compromising his path. If that wasn’t enough, he would push his Branch of Death and the Branch of the War Axe to the Middle-stage, turning the Daos into even more powerful vessels to form the Annihilation Sphere.

Perhaps he could improve the process of forming the outburst, focusing its power with the help of his empowered soul. Until now, he had always pushed two streams of Dao into the pathways on his shoulders, but there was perhaps more he could do. For example, what if he created specific braids to empower the streams? Perhaps even Dao Arrays?

The more Zac thought about it, the more his hope rekindled. Perhaps there were treasures or methods that would allow the incorporeal form of [Abyssal Phase] to survive inside the Annihilation Sphere long enough to escape. This wasn’t the end. It was just the beginning.

If eighteen months wasn’t enough to escape, he’d cultivate for three years. If that failed, then ten. He wouldn’t stop pushing himself in his pursuit of freedom until the Orom ripped him apart. Even then, he’d at least try to go out with a bang, damaging the big bastard or killing its descendants. Perhaps he could detonate the Remnants in his head, creating one final blast of chaos upon his demise.

For now, Zac figured he’d avoid using his Draugr side for a while just in case, and he transformed back into his human form before emerging from the cultivation tree he’d used as one of his home bases over the past year. He didn’t dismantle the arrays that shielded it, but he did take out a warning array before leaving.

It was a simple array that would transmit a signal to a daughter-array in his Cosmos Sack in case anyone forced their way into the tree. From there, Zac walked toward the side of the living, passing through the forest that had almost become as familiar to him as the forest of Port Atwood. In total, he had spent roughly two-thirds of his waking time in the Wilderness, constantly pushing himself to improve his combat stances.

However, he never stayed more than a month each time, sometimes just a week or two. In between, he traveled across the Orom World, sparring against dozens of different Hegemons or being imparted some general knowledge. Finally, he had set up two rudimentary cultivation caves, one for each persona, where he digested the insights before heading out again.

There were only so many hours available each day, and every aspect became more and more demanding as he progressed further. Zac figured he could evolve his Daos and work on his soul anywhere, and his limited time in the Orom World would be best spent by utilizing the old monsters and improving his cultivation stances.

He had at least made some small inroads into forming the Thousand Lights Avatar in between battles in the Wilderness. He estimated that his spiritual body had become around 10% more congealed down to his throat, which was a step in the right direction. It was less than 1% toward forming a proper avatar, but it was something.

Zac kept going for two days until he reached his second cultivation cave in the neighboring Life-attuned zone. This one was in a tree as well, but rather in the crown of a majestic oak that towered above most of the trees in the Life-infused forest. Sitting in its crown and gazing upon the surroundings had helped him gain some insights into the Dao of Life.

The scenery had played a big role when upgrading [Hatchetman’s Spirit] into [Ancestral Woods] during his stay, though he had drawn inspiration from multiple sources. The teleportation was a mix of his omnipresence of [Pillar of Desolation] and the lanky swordsman in the Battle of Fates, who could move through the sword pillars he’d erected.

Unfortunately, the High-grade skill-upgrading chamber along with years of accumulation hadn’t been enough to form another ultimate pathbound skill. Still, [Ancestral Woods] was above-average, even among Peak-quality domain skills. The result was no doubt better than what he would have accomplished with just a [Fractal Framework Array].

For example, he managed to completely transform the defensive properties of the skill. Before, the skill had conjured a divine tree with defensive charges, but those had never really come into play. They weren’t powerful enough to help if his constitution proved insufficient. Furthermore, he was already getting [Empyrean Aegis] as soon as he got his Life-attuned Dao Branch.

So instead, Zac had taken inspiration from [Undying Legion] when making the adjustments. Now, the trees could soak up some of the damage he received, apart from providing the omniscience, attribute buffs, and teleportation. It had become a skill with over a hundred small charges, where each teleportation expended one charge.

It was altogether superior to the previous version, with the exception that the trees had become semi-corporeal. Attacks infused with either Dao Branches or enough energy could damage them, though it would take some effort to rip them all apart. That was doubly true considering [Adamance of Eoz] transferred over to his human side through [Quantum Gate], even if the node didn’t appear in his Status Screen.

Zac spent the next few days in his tree crown regrouping himself and planning his next move. Until now, he had focused mostly on his techniques, but if he wanted to strengthen the effect of his Annihilation Sphere, he would have to put more effort into his Daos and his soul.

Should he set up his cultivation cave on the island again, this time springing for a more permanent set-up to work on his soul? By now, his Soul Aperture had completely stabilized after the evolution, and he could start practicing the third layer of [Nine Reincarnations Manual] at any time. Problem was, he only had 200 Purchase Points to his name after his pre-escape shopping spree.

He had lots of ideas, but felt he could use some guidance. He infused some energy into his Cosmos Sack, where over two hundred tokens floated in the void. He was the most familiar with Travo Raso, but the old man had entered seclusion to prepare for the three-year reshuffle of new arrivals. Eventually, his eyes turned to a glistening token—the one belonging to the unique lifeform Ubo.

Zac had tried visiting the elemental once before, but Ubo was still out from its cultivation cave at the time. But that was months ago, and Zac figured he could give it a try. The elemental lived in the same Life-attuned zone as Zac had set up his cave in, though on the opposite side. Considering he was also a Monarch, who better than Ubo to ask for some pointers?

There was also Heda, but Zac was still a bit leery about the cultivator locked in a perpetual battle for her soul with some terrifying parasitic plant life. Zac made his way toward the mountain that Ubo had made its home. Ten days later he arrived, and he once more gazed with marvel at the golden mountain.

It was teeming with life, even emitting a weak halo as though it was a holy mountain from legend. But even though it was drenched in powerful energies, there wasn’t actually a single plant growing on its slopes. Perhaps that was why Ubo occupied this spot in the first place. Its flavor of life matched Ubo’s origin.

The whole mountain was covered in a shimmering barrier, and Zac infused some energy into the invitation token to notify the elemental of his arrival.

“So, you’re here, youngster. Come in,” a voice emerged from within the mountain, and the barrier flickered to provide passage.

Zac curiously entered, and he found himself in the heart of the mountain. He’d thought his cultivation cave back home on Earth was impressive enough, but he couldn’t help gawking as he looked around. Ubo had essentially hollowed out the whole mountain, and over a hundred golden pillars rose over a thousand meters into the air, each one covered in esoteric engravings.

There were arrays everywhere, and Zac was almost blinded by the thousands of Divine Crystals that illuminated the place. There was even plenty of natural sunlight in the cave, thanks to strategically placed vents in the ceiling. The area was as large as a whole village, and even contained a lake where Zac spotted thousands of golden carps swimming.

There were also dozens of buildings and side-caves whose purpose Zac couldn’t pinpoint because of obscuring arrays blurring them out.

In the center of it all was a massive altar reaching over fifty meters into the air, and the energies that swirled around it was almost a match to the cave he rented to open his Hidden Node. And even if Zac wasn’t an expert, he could tell that most of the arrays surrounding the altar weren’t even activated, which meant Ubo could probably boost the environment further.

Seeing this place made him embarrassed just thinking of his dinky little cave back home. Even worse, the crude camps he set up here in the Orom World. Then again, he had visited quite a few cultivation caves, and this one was definitely more intricate than anything else he’d come across.

Some warriors were even worse than he was, where they had just found a spot they liked and thrown out a mat.

“Not bad, huh?” Ubo laughed, its voice reverberating through the cave.

Zac looked around with confusion until he spotted a mysterious stone on top of the altar. It sat on top of an embroidered pillow, but a moment later, it rose into the air as the shimmering body of Ubo congealed.

“It’s eye-opening,” Zac agreed, taking another look at the meticulously designed cave. “There are truths hidden in this arrangement.”

“There are truths hidden in everything,” Ubo countered. “But you are correct. Every item and building in this cave are part of a formation I created to imprint my path on my surroundings. This way, I am never led astray while meditating. I’m not as powerful as those at the peak in this cage, those who are able to subvert the will of the Orom World and rebuff the subliminal messages.”

The next moment, Ubo appeared at the foot of the altar, and it conjured a table along with some spiritual fruits.

“If my memory serves, roughly two years have passed since your arrival,” Ubo said after they sat down. “Do you feel confident about the three-year shake-up?”

“It should be fine,” Zac said. “I read you need 15,000 points on average to pass at the E-grade. I’ve already passed that, and I still have time to make more progress.”

“Not bad,” Ubo nodded. “But don’t get complacent. You should have read some of the records.”

“It’s hard to believe,” Zac muttered with a shake of his head. “How could someone at the E-grade gather more than 100,000 Contribution Points in three years?”

The current record at the E-grade was set two million years ago, where a woman called Jala Evermyre gained 118,235 Contribution Points before the three-year deadline. Even forming a Dao Branch was only worth a couple of thousand Contribution Points. To pass 100,000 in three years, she must have not only gained multiple advanced-stage Dao breakthroughs, but also practiced other highly valued methods like soul cultivation or bloodline evolutions.

Even then, Zac’s performance wasn’t anything to scoff at. He’d already gained over 35,000 Contribution Points since arriving in the Orom World, making him pretty much safe from the three-year culling. And that was without even aiming to maximize his Contribution Points. He was confident that he would be able to gain quite a bit more over the next year as well, as long as he didn’t get stuck on some bottleneck.

“Well, that particular lady only stayed for four years before leaving. The Orom World also entered a twenty-year weakened state around the same time, so most assume someone in her family took issue with their descendant being caught,” Ubo snorted. “So, what brings you here today?”

“I encountered a bit of a setback recently,” Zac sighed. “I figured I would stretch my legs and clear my head for a bit.”

“Setbacks are part of cultivation. I once fell into a spatial crack that threw me into a corrupted inheritance trial. Took me eight hundred years to break out,” Ubo laughed. “Setbacks can be as valuable as epiphanies, provided you make the most of it. Tell me, what are you planning on doing next?”

Zac felt the atmosphere had shifted a bit, like there was some sort of hidden implication to the elemental’s question.

“Well, I’ll keep training and then try again,” Zac said after a while. “I don’t like to back down after having decided on something.”

“Ha!” Ubo laughed. “I guess the Lord was right.”

“What?” Zac asked with a sinking feeling in his chest.

Had someone exposed him, connecting his two identities and his escape attempt? Zac immediately got ready to fight or escape, but what was the point even if he managed to kill the elemental in front of him? There was still this anonymous Lord who could turn him in at any time. Or was the Lord the Orom?

Zac frantically tried to figure out what to do, but his mind froze when he saw a familiar object appear above Ubo’s hand.

“The Lord contacted me half a year ago. Told me that you would visit me soon,” the elemental explained. “It was he who instructed me to ask you about your plans, and present this thing in case your answer was to his satisfaction.”

Zac barely heard the elemental’s words, his eyes glued to the token hovering in the air.

“Perennial Vastness…”

47

OPPORTUNITY

Zac made his way toward the eye of the Life-attuned zone, his heart filled with misgivings. The token Ubo showed had just been a projection, but according to the elemental, the real Perennial Vastness Token was his as long as he met with the Lord. But since when did good things simply fall into one’s lap? He was pretty lucky, but not that lucky.

Ubo was just the messenger, but the elemental had confirmed the so-called Lord wasn’t the Orom itself.

But Ubo refused to elaborate any further, only urging him to not keep the Lord waiting. Zac reluctantly agreed, and left the mountain a minute later, his previous plans put on the backburner. After all, the Perennial Vastness Token was too good to pass up, and it might even be his ticket out of this place.

At this point, Zac could only pray this mysterious Lord who seemed to have anticipated his every move was friendly. Hopefully, he wouldn’t demand something outlandish in exchange for the token, though Zac was prepared for the worst-case scenario. He was filled to the brim with Creation Energy, and his Void Energy had also mostly recovered.

Between the two, he had a decent shot at even taking out Monarchs in this world.

But there were no guarantees. After all, there were just over one hundred zones in the Orom World, and most of the warriors living at the heart of a zone were either High or Peak Monarch. Weirdly enough, Zac had absolutely no recollection of who this particular powerhouse was. Come to think of it, it was a bit odd he hadn’t even considered the issue.

Zac’s tree fortress was a day’s way into the Life-attuned zone from the small island, and if he kept going for five days or so he’d reach the heart of the zone. They were practically neighbors, but Zac had barely spared the powerhouse a thought. Had his mind been influenced to ignore the matter somehow?

The implication filled him with even greater trepidation, but there was no turning back now. It was hard to tell exactly how many of his secrets this Lord knew, and avoiding him might be even worse than just facing the issue head-on.

Two days passed as Zac got closer and closer to his destination, and he had already passed dozens of massive barriers shielding huge cultivation havens. These inner parts were exclusively controlled by Monarchs, and all their caves were fitted with massive gathering arrays. As a result, the environment between these massive bubbles was even worse than at his treehouse.

Of course, if a Hegemon dared set up camp this far into a zone, he’d quickly get kicked out if he didn’t have enough strength to defend his claim. No one wanted to die, and any energy siphoned by a neighboring gathering array was an attempt on their lives as far as the cultivators were concerned.

Even then, Zac realized the cultivation havens simply stopped as he got closer to the true center of the zone, and the environment was suddenly awash with Life. The density was at least three times compared to his treehouse, and the attunements infused in the environment were equally impressive. Even the rustling of some leaves filled Zac with wonder and inspiration.

Oddly enough, Zac was also filled with a sense of familiarity, but he couldn’t pinpoint the source of the impression. It was almost like something was calling to him, but the feeling was completely different from the far more palpable urge he got from the Remnants. Was it the Lord? Did they actually know each other?

That was extremely unlikely, unless they’d met in the Orom World without Zac knowing.

Soon, the chaotic forests of unbridled Life had been replaced by an orderly bamboo forest, where each pole reached for the sky. Each bamboo shoot was almost identical in size, but that didn’t mean they weren’t instilled with the exuberant energy of the environment. In fact, these trees seemed far more Life-infused compared to the random plant life behind him.

It almost felt like he would be able to squeeze out Pure Life from the shoots if he so desired, but he didn’t dare do anything of the sort. He was right in the core, and this forest was probably planted by the Lord himself. If he needed any further evidence this place was claimed, he could spot various red and golden ornaments hanging between the bamboo poles up in the sky, giving the forest an almost festive feel.

Zac’s instincts told him that most of those things were Spiritual Tools and High-grade talismans, yet Zac was unable to discern so much as a ripple of energy coming from any. As for the markings on the ornaments, they reminded Zac of the Sanskrit engravings on Mount Everlasting Peace back on Earth. They seemed filled with meaning, but not related to the common script that made up most arrays.

Zac was rooted in place, hesitant about what to do next. There was no barrier or vast aura barring his entry, and he had been invited. But could he just barge in like this? This place didn’t feel like somewhere he should intrude upon, especially not with all those unidentifiable talismans hanging above his head.

‘Follow the path,’ a voice suddenly echoed through Zac’s mind, and Zac steeled his heart as he entered, following a small paved path that had seemingly appeared out of thin air.

The voice filled him with an even greater sense of familiarity, but his brows furrowed with confusion as he continued down the forest path. Just who was it? He couldn’t place it at all.

The forest was larger than Zac expected, walking for over three hours without reaching the end. By that point, he had passed hundreds of thousands of bamboo poles and ornaments, and could barely fathom their collective value. At least he’d figured out their purpose. They were soul-nurturing talismans that filled him with vigor.

Not only that, but Zac realized the whole bamboo forest was just one gargantuan array, where each bamboo shoot and ornament acted as a flag. The arrangement was terrifyingly complex, and he couldn’t even begin to comprehend its purpose. But finally, the scenery shifted when he reached a small temple complex next to a babbling brook.

Zac suspected as much from the various clues, but this confirmed it. The ‘Lord’ was a monk of the Buddhist Sangha.

The temple was much smaller than the one on Mount Everlasting Peace, with two small bell towers at the front, followed by a main hall where Zac vaguely could make out the statue of some deity. Farther in the back, Zac saw two mirrored buildings as well, and guessed they were either for meditation or living.

At first glance, it appeared simple, to the point it might as well have been a random temple situated somewhere in the mountains in east Asia. But there was something grand hiding within the simplicity. For example, Zac didn’t dare enter the main temple. Just looking in its direction made his soul shudder.

A true deity could very well be hiding within that statue, and Zac’s instincts told him that encroaching on its territory would have disastrous consequences. Even if he didn’t die, he was afraid his Dao Heart would be damaged. He once more remembered the warning of that necromancer when he just arrived, of how Buddhists were natural pathbreakers. Looking at that temple, he finally understood what he meant.

He turned away from the temple and started toward a small platform by the water. It had actually taken him a few times before noticing there was someone sitting on top of it. The bald man was so in tune with the surroundings, Zac’s eyes didn’t even register he was there.

In fact, Zac guessed he was only able to spot him because the man wanted him to. As he walked over, he got a better look at the man, which only increased his confusion. He was some sort of humanoid, but was more akin to a dwarf than a human. Zac guessed he wouldn't even reach his chest when standing, yet the monk probably weighed as much as he did.

When you added his lack of hair, he gave off an almost cherubic impression. The monk had three marks on his forehead that emitted a mysterious aura, but Zac’s eyes were still drawn to a token fastened to his sloppy kasaya. An Emerald Badge. As Zac closed in, the monk opened his eyes, showcasing two silver irises, and he smiled in Zac’s direction.

But why did his gaze look so shifty?

He had the temple, the clothes, and the spiritual forest, yet Zac felt like the fat little man was one of those fake monks scamming travelers in tourist hotspots. And his first words only strengthened that feeling.

“Amitabha. Welcome, Benefactor. Karma pulls us together, we are connected. Benefactor, you carry great destiny on your self.” The monk smiled as he walked down from the precept platform. “But with great fate comes dangerous tribulations. How about making a small offering to this poor temple and receiving its blessings in return?”

Zac blankly looked at the smiling monk, barely believing what he was hearing. This monk was probably a Peak Monarch and an Emerald Badge, yet he was trying to solicit an E-grade cultivator for resources?

“I would, but I’m afraid I would be punished for sharing resources,” Zac said with feigned disappointment as he showcased the prison brand on his hand.

“How can the Orom’s Law measure to Buddha’s love?” the monk admonished with a sad look. “But this poor monk hears the willingness in your voice and senses the benevolence in your heart, and will therefore gratefully accept this offering. Come, let me show Benefactor around.”

Zac was confused, then almost swore when he saw the monk was holding one of the Spatial Rings Zac had hidden within his sleeves. That particular one held a good chunk of low-grade materials along with a pile of cultivation methods he planned on selling through Calrin.

“That’s—” Zac exclaimed, but the monk simply walked away, chanting ‘Amitabha.’

Zac didn’t have the slightest idea how the hell the thieving monk snatched one of his Spatial Rings, but he breathed out in relief when the rings that held the real treasures were still on his person. His instincts told him to just suck up the loss and leave, but he eventually took a calming breath and reluctantly followed the monk.

He still hadn’t accomplished any of his goals of coming here, so he couldn’t just leave.

“Ubo said your eminence wanted to meet with me?” Zac said as the monk seemed content with just taking a stroll. “About the token…”

“This poor monk has stayed here so long, alas. But he has heard many tales of wonder. A previous visitor described the marvelous wines cultivators enjoy. It piqued this poor monk’s interest,” the fat little monk interjected before giving Zac a pointed look. “Benefactor just arrived at this world, no? Perhaps, Benefactor can expand this poor monk’s understanding.”

Zac mutely handed over one of his vats of liquor and then added two more as the monk’s expression showed clear signs of dissatisfaction. He didn’t even bother asking why a monk wanted alcohol. The bald little bastard had already robbed him, so what if he also partook in meat and liquor?

“Amitabha. To understand all creation, one must partake in all creation,” the monk said with a self-suffering look as he took a deep swig from one of the vats.

Zac hesitated to ask again, fearing the monk would just counter with more demands, but a flash of light flew in his direction. He hurriedly snatched it, and his eyes widened when he saw it was the Perennial Vastness Token.

“Benefactor has grown a lot since we last met. Hopefully, this thing will help down the road.” The monk smiled as he kept walking.

“We’ve met before?” Zac asked with confusion, still unable to make sense of the familiar feeling. He almost believed it was some illusion skill the monk used to scam people.

“As this poor monk said, we are connected,” the monk smiled. “Our roads have intersected before. Twice, in fact.”

“What?” Zac blurted, but the brook and the bamboo were suddenly gone.

A small cherry tree swayed in the wind, and a unique creature sat in silent meditation. He had no legs, but wings and two unusually long arms. A moment later, the scene shifted again, and Zac saw a fat little youth putting a whole mountain into his inner world.

“Lord 84th? The Lotus Emperor?” Zac exclaimed, and he felt some sort of blockage snapping in his mind, and could suddenly connect two and two again.

So it was another avatar. Zac should’ve guessed the moment he saw the fat little man. However, something must’ve blocked his thoughts, just like Lord 84th had somehow removed one of his futures back on Earth.

“It is surprising. In this vast universe, Benefactor has not only met my 84th incarnation, but also formed a Karmic Cycle with one of my still-sleeping avatars. Truly a blessing.”

“May I ask who your esteemed self are?” Zac queried.

“This poor monk managed to awaken third by a stroke of luck. My Dharmic name is Three Virtues.”

They passed by one of the inner structures, and Zac couldn’t believe his eyes when he spotted two blindingly gorgeous women sitting inside chatting.

The monk actually had girlfriends staying at the temple? Zac felt his understanding of Buddhism had reached new highs. Or new lows, depending on how you looked at it, after this one short visit. But that shock was nothing compared to what he saw in the opposite building.

It hovered inside some sort of glass cage, and an outer seal of Buddhist runes stopped any aura from leaking. But there was no mistaking it. There was a Shard of Creation in this temple.

“That’s!” Zac exclaimed, but he quickly tried to make his face impassive.

“Benefactor likes this thing?” Three Virtues smiled as he glanced at the shard, but soon shook his head. “Benefactor should be careful. There is an undying will hidden inside, a will that not even this poor monk’s sutras can cleanse.”

Zac looked at the sealed Shard of Creation for a few more moments, and he was slowly starting to form a hypothesis. There was no way the monk just happened to lead him past this thing on accident.

“This thing is a blight on your fine temple,” Zac slowly said. “I am willing to take it off your hands.”

“That would surely be an act of great benevolence,” Three Virtues nodded as it was a matter of course. “Alas, there is a problem.”

“What’s the matter?” Zac said, inwardly groaning as he saw that shady look in the monk’s eyes again.

“Have Benefactor heard of Batallion Leader Kaldor?”

Two weeks later, Zac crept closer to the heart of the Dead Zone, once more relying on his Draugr persona. In his hands was the roughly crafted invitation token that shifty monk imparted with him before throwing him out of the bamboo forest. The invitation token to the overlord of the Pure Death-zone.

According to Three Virtues, he was more than happy to get rid of the Shard of Creation. In fact, he had only reluctantly gotten it from the Emerald Badge Contribution Store to balance out the Splinter of Oblivion this Kaldor bought a while back.

As to why Three Virtues felt Zac was the man for the job to snatch that thing, Zac had a pretty good idea. The monk hadn’t said it outright, but he definitely knew about Zac’s two races. Three Virtues had strongly indicated that while Batallion Leader Kadlor held no love for the living, he had left some invitation tokens for promising undead warriors to find.

And one of those tokens had just somehow entered the hands of Three Virtues.

Zac didn’t know if the monk could sense the Remnants in his mind as well, but it was certainly possible. Zac was convinced the monk wanted Zac to collect a pair. As to what the monk was planning, Zac didn’t know. Did he know that two Remnants would lead to the formation of a Glimpse of Chaos? Did he want to use Zac to escape?

Thankfully, the monk had already provided Zac with one escape route from the Orom World with the Perennial Vastness Token, and his instincts told him the monk’s schemes weren’t directed at himself. Zac didn’t believe for a second he’d survive an attempt on his life from the monk, so there was no point for Three Virtues to scheme against him. The strength of an Emerald Badge Peak Monarch was far beyond what he expected.

Zac knew he was being led by the nose as he got closer to a large fortress in the distance, but being forced to play a part in someone’s scheme didn’t necessarily mean your fate was out of your hands. There were risks, but there were also ample rewards to be had. His goal was to find five sets of Remnants, and a third set had presented itself just after he’d evolved his soul?

No wonder the System ignored him when Zac had pleaded with it to take him out so he could continue his mission.

“One of the new brats?” a rough voice echoed out from within the fortress when Zac got closer, and Zac groaned as his vision swam.

It felt like he was drowned in a sea of blood, and deafening screams of rage and suffering threatened to drive him mad. Zac soon stabilized his mind and kept walking, guessing this was some sort of test. It was killing intent so condensed, it had essentially turned into a mental attack. But his resilience against killing intent was far beyond normal by this point.

“Oh, not bad,” a laugh echoed from within as the gates swung open. “I don’t hold much love for people wasting time on cultivating the soul, but you have a decent smell of carnage on you. Seems you’ve even killed some of those ghost bastards and a pureblood bloodsucker? Pretty gutsy. Is that why you’re hiding in here even if you’re a pureblood Draugr?”

Zac froze, but he wryly smiled as he took off his mask, exposing a backup face to his Arcaz Black persona. He should’ve guessed he wouldn’t be able to hide his heritage to someone who was a match to that monk. Zac walked into the fortress, but the large field inside was empty.

He turned toward the castle next, but a barrier stopped him from going any farther. He could only stop in his tracks, waiting for the boss to come out.

“So you’re the little bastard who caused such a ruckus in my zone a while back? Did you know I had to take the blame for that one? Bastard, costing me 50,000 Points,” the voice swore, and Zac stumbled backward as another wave of killing intent almost knocked him out.

The aura that had descended on the square could only be forged through innumerable life-and-death battles. Neither the Ogre in the Big Axe Coliseum nor Greatest could even come close to the aura of supremacy that flooded the castle. The Havarok Autarch’s killing intent might’ve been stronger, but it had been less condensed.

This was something else entirely.

Yet Zac stood his ground, feeling he’d be in more trouble if he fled. Thankfully, he was right, and the pressure subsided.

“I can guess why you’re here. The stench of that cursed little thing is still all over you. Is that why you’ve nurtured your soul? You want to cram your head full of these things?” the man said, and Zac sensed that Kaldor’s tone had changed from anger to curiosity.

“Something like that,” Zac muttered, feeling that being straightforward with this Batallion Leader was his best approach. “It should make me stronger. At worst, I’ll become a lunatic, and I’ll be someone else’s problem by then.”

“Hah!” a laugh echoed out through the square. “Fair enough. Well, seeing as we’re the only two purebloods in this place, I guess I can help out a bit.”

“Lord is a Draugr as well?” Zac exclaimed with some excitement, hoping he could gain some insights into his Hidden Nodes.

“Bah, who’s one of you?” a snort came back, instantly dashing those hopes. “I can give you that thing. After all, I am a bit curious about what would happen. But I refuse to help someone useless, so you’d have to accomplish something to prove yourself.”

Zac inwardly prayed it wasn’t to take the Shard of Creation from the monk. He wasn’t in any mood to deal with a catch-22 between two old monsters playing some game.

“A duel. No skills and no using that cursed energy. Within three years, land a single hit on me, no matter how weak. I will not use my Warbones and will restrain my Daos to Peak Dao Fragments. Succeed, and I will give you that little splinter. Fail, and I will kill you,” Kaldor said. “Do you dare to take up the challenge?”

Zac didn’t immediately say yes. By the looks of it, this Kaldor was actually an Izh’Rak Reaver, and a pureblood at that. Zac still didn’t know much about them, except that they were natural-born killing machines. They had extremely powerful constitutions and natural affinities for combat.

Even if Kaldor restrained his combat style to the level of Peak Dao Fragment, it would probably be perfectly integrated. With his huge amount of experience, it would be an extremely tough battle. Zac couldn’t ambush him with Void Energy either. That might work on Peak Hegemons and perhaps even Early Monarchs, but Zac held no such delusions after feeling the killing intent of Kaldor.

To get the splinter, he would have to win fair and square. But first, Zac needed to know more.

“How strong do I need to be to succeed?” Zac asked.

“If you manage to pass the fourth band in the Wilderness, I’d say you have a fifty-fifty shot,” Kaldor said.

Zac had two choices now, one easy and one dangerous. He could either lay low until he reached Peak E-grade in this place before setting off with the Perennial Vastness Token. Or he could gamble his life to seize the third set of Remnants. It took him one year to pass the first two bands. Could he pass two more in three years?

Possibly, as long as he made some meaningful breakthroughs.

He almost managed to tear apart space with a single Annihilation Sphere a month ago. With chaos coursing through his body, escaping and destroying the brand on his hand would be a cinch. His gaze turned to the ring on his finger, where the Perennial Vastness Token rested. But his Abyssal eyes soon turned back toward the castle where the Izh’Rak Reaver was secluded, his heart beating with conviction.

Was it even a choice?

48

ENTANGLED

“No!” an exasperated scream echoed through the sealed chamber, prompting an avalanche of guards to come running.

“Mistress?” the captain shouted with worry as she activated the dozens of arrays that sealed the whole planet, preventing even Autarchs from breaking in.

Space was seared as she unleashed her domain through the surroundings, but her demeanor soon softened as she turned to the young mistress with confusion. “Is something amiss?”

“I’m sorry to startle you. The connection is getting bad again,” Iz sighed as she waved her hand at the blurry screen in front of her. “No point in staying here now.”

“Please, wait! The impartment is not yet complete!” the captain urged with horror, seeing that her ward was attempting to leave her cultivation session early again. “I will call for Lord Valderak. He will have answers.”

“Alright,” Iz muttered as she sunk further down into the shimmering liquid.

A few seconds later, scorching flames broke space apart as a densely inscribed golem stepped through the void.

“Uncle,” Iz smiled from the pond.

“Little girl, what’s wrong? I had almost fallen asleep when arrays suddenly covered the whole planet,” the golem sighed.

“You guys keep overreacting every time I so much as yawn,” Iz muttered with a roll of her eyes.

“Your grandfather worries,” Valderak smiled before he turned to the flickering screen. “Oh, the Divine Mirror is blocked again?”

“It’s those stupid Remnants,” Iz frowned as she rose from the pool again. “I already missed the last one. I’m going in person this time.”

However, a gentle pressure stopped her from rising too far, and Iz once more sunk into the liquid as she glared at her uncle.

“There is only a finite amount of Everflame Bloom remaining since the birth of the era,” Valderak said with a shake of his head. “Few can stomach its cost. More importantly, your grandfather once risked his life seizing it in the Endless Storm. You cannot discard it.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Iz sighed. “I just… I’ve been sitting here for years, absorbing this thing. Now, Mr. Bug is about to do something stupid again, and I can’t even watch it in the mirror. This isn’t life. I want excitement like he has.”

“That brat sure knows how to attract trouble,” Valderak said with a bemused shake of his head. “I thought he was trapped inside that mutated Voidcatcher? Did he escape?”

“He tried breaking out with those Remnants, but it failed,” Iz giggled. “You should have seen his face. But now it looks like there is another set in that stupid fish.”

“His destiny has really become entangled with those things,” Valderak muttered. “No wonder, no wonder…”

“I can still see what’s going on, but the reception will only get worse as Chaos creates ripples across the river of time,” Iz complained. “I should have been there for the last one. I don’t want to miss it again.”

“How about this,” the golem said after looking at the shimmering mirror for a few seconds. “The interference of Chaos is still weak. By the looks of it, we have time. We’ll ask Master to divine it for us. If you’ve finished absorbing the primal essence of the Everflame Bloom by the time the brat gets his hands on the next set, I’ll take you there in person.”

“And you won’t trick me into going to some trial or Mystic Realm this time?” Iz said with a raised brow.

“No tricks, I promise. Work hard on your cultivation,” Valderak grinned. “This is an opportunity every fire cultivator in the universe would dream of.”

“Alright.” Iz smiled as she sunk to the bottom of the pond, throwing a final look at the hazy image of the silly Draugr in the mirror. “I’m coming for you, Mr. Bug.”

* * *

Having made his decision, Zac wasted no time.

“I want that splinter. I’ll take the challenge,” Zac said.

“Brat, I think I have an idea of what you’re planning to do with that thing, but you should know it is as much a curse as an opportunity,” the Izh’Rak Reaver grunted. “Don’t sacrifice your future for some short-term benefits.”

“I’m aware,” Zac nodded. “I still want to give it a try.”

“Fine. The ignorant are truly fearless. Three years,” Kaldor snorted from within the mansion.

“About that… Would it be alright if I came here to ask for pointers?” Zac ventured, feeling he would be a fool not to try to seize this opportunity.

Commander Kaldor was one of the most powerful warriors he had ever encountered, most likely even eclipsing Yrial. Even some offhanded guidance from this man would be worth its weight in gold.

“What? You want me to help you defeat me? When has there ever been such a good thing?” Kaldor laughed. “Prove yourself before you ask me for any pointers. Now get out of here.”

A wave of extremely condensed Dao rippled out from the mansion, and Zac felt like he was looking into the maw of some Primordial Beast. He hurriedly scurried out of the way, exiting through the gate which closed behind him. Zac shook his head and started walking away, but he stopped when he sensed a small item flying toward him.

Zac caught the small token, at which point Kaldor’s voice echoed through his mind. “Go to Pavina. Learn to walk before you can run.”

A smile of anticipation spread across Zac’s face as he looked at the token. As far as he knew, the Silver Attendant Pavina hadn’t appeared in the coliseum since Zac saw her fight over a year ago. Even then, her dominating display of Pure Death still lingered in the back of his mind, and it had been a major source of inspiration as he worked on his skill quest and his Inexorable Stance in the Wilderness.

In fact, his Death-based fighting stance was a lot more mature compared to his living side. He’d already delved into the suffocating inexorability of death during the Twilight Ascent, and over the past year, he had infused a lot of lethality into the stance as well. If he hadn’t spent the last four months working on his Evolutionary Stance while collecting treasures, his human side would have been left far behind.

By the looks of it, that imbalance would only get worse over the next three years. Unfortunately, there was nothing to do about it. After all, failing in the duel against Kaldor didn’t only mean not getting his hand on the Remnant. It meant death unless he managed to flee. After all, Zac’s instincts told him that Kaldor wasn’t joking around when he said that failure would result in death.

But Zac wasn’t planning on escaping in either case. He had already passed the second band of the Wilderness with his less refined stance. If he pushed himself, he would already be able to make some headway into the third band in his undead form. Now, he simply needed to build on that foundation and conquer the next two bands.

Kaldor had given him three years to prepare, but Zac wanted to conquer the fourth band in two. That way, he had some leeway and time to polish his stance even further. After all, Kaldor only gave him a 50-50 shot even if he passed the fourth band. Obviously, Zac didn’t want to risk his life unless he absolutely had to.

Before heading to the Wilderness to continue grinding, Zac knew he could use some advice. Luckily, Kaldor had provided just the thing. Zac set course for Pavina’s cultivation cave, following the directions inside the token. There was clearly a connection between the two undead powerhouses, considering Pavina’s residence was only half a day’s journey away from Kaldor’s castle.

Furthermore, Pavina’s mansion looked almost identical.

The gates swung open as he got closer, and Zac once more took off the mask he generally wore in his Draugr form before he walked inside. He figured Pavina already knew about his race, or would know soon enough. A minute later, he stood in a hazy hall littered with discarded weapons, burning incense sticks, and large tapestries that looked like banners that had been through a few wars.

It almost seemed like the mansion had barely survived a brutal siege, with both walls and pillars covered in scars. However, while the interiors were nowhere near as orderly as the beautiful cave of Ubo, the Life Elemental, Zac felt there was more at play in this place than met the eye. There was truth hidden in the disorder, and every single scar on the walls was instilled with meaning.

In the midst of it all, the Silver Attendant Revenant sat on a prayer mat with a large unfurled scroll in her hands. She curiously looked at Zac as he walked over, giving special attention to his abyssal eyes. Even if there was no killing intent or malice in her stare, Zac suddenly felt as though he was trapped in a world of endless death.

The pressure was suffocating, forcing Zac to take a steadying breath as he stopped in place. He may as well have been sent to the deepest recesses of hell, but the feeling thankfully only lasted a moment before Pavina relented. Even then, Zac was shaken, feeling like he’d been exposed to something far greater than a Dao Domain.

“Sorry, I am still getting used to the power of my inner world,” Pavina said with a small smile as the pressure disappeared. “You are the one who dared enter a life-death duel with Master?”

Zac wasn’t surprised to hear Pavina was Kaldor’s disciple. Master-disciple relationships were quite rare in this place due to the direct competition, but they weren’t unheard of. However, Zac was more shocked by the other piece of information she divulged.

“You’ve become a Monarch?” Zac exclaimed with shock, remembering Pavina was just a Peak Hegemon back when she fought in the arena.

Normally, an ascension into Monarchy would be a grand event, especially for someone like Pavina who likely walked the Boundless Path of Pure Death. Boundless cultivators were beset by the Grand Minor Tribulation.

The name was a bit odd, but taking that step would summon the most powerful of the minor tribulations. There were two weaker stages as well, one upon reaching E-grade and one when becoming a Hegemon. By the point Zac became an E-grade cultivator, he was still cultivating the Heavenly Path without any real sense of direction, but he would have to withstand the old Heaven’s punishment upon trying to form his core.

Even cultivators walking Heaven’s Path would cause quite a scene when forming their inner world. It was an event somewhat similar to the Dao Apparitions in the Tower of Eternity, where their understanding of the Dao was put on display. Unfortunately, the Orom teleported people away when they broke through as a security measure, placing them in some different compartment of its body.

It robbed spectators of their chance to glean some truths into the Dao, but the Orom prioritized its safety over providing opportunities to its prisoners.

“It was long overdue,” Pavina shrugged with a casual expression, but Zac saw a small smirk on her face before she returned to her neutral expression.

“Still, it’s an amazing accomplishment,” Zac said, pushing down any sense of shame to properly butter up this recently ascended Monarch. “It’s one thing to do it in the empire where our people have all the facilities available. But to accomplish it in the Orom World takes another level of talent.”

“It’s nothing much, just passable,” Pavina said with a studiously impassive face. Zac noticed the basic mat set out for him had been replaced by a much higher-quality one in an instant.

Zac wanted to roll his eyes upon confirming this seemingly cold master really had unleashed a bit of her newfound power to show off her breakthrough. But Zac also remembered how the Revenant warrior had manhandled that other Silver Attendant in the arena. He’d put up a valiant struggle, but Pavina was firmly in the driver’s seat from beginning to end, not taking a single hit.

She had stood out among Hegemons, even in this place.

“What do you seek from me, child?” Pavina asked as Zac sat down.

“Some advice, I guess,” Zac said as he organized his thoughts. He had clearly contacted her already, so he simply decided to jump straight into it. “Commander Kaldor said I need to conquer the fourth band to have a decent chance of surviving his challenge. I think it’s doable, but I want to avoid any pitfalls as I train over the next years.”

“Well, let’s see what we’re working with first,” Pavina said as she stood.

Zac got right back on his feet with some surprise, mentally preparing himself for a tough challenge.

“With or without weapons?” Zac asked.

“I have heard of you,” Pavina said. “You are making rapid progress from what I am told, but you are not yet at a stage where you can showcase your prowess without your weapons of choice.”

Zac simply nodded and took out one of his training axes, wasting no time as he rushed forward. He swung his axe in a ruthless underhand arc as the chains of his coffin aimed to pincer and restrict Pavina’s movements. However, it was like Zac was trying to trap a cloud as she effortlessly weaved through the restrictions Zac set up as her finger moved toward his forehead.

Once more the feeling of inescapable death threatened to overwhelm him, and two chains slammed into the ground, pushing him back dozens of meters to avoid the strike. That simple movement had been too terrifying, making Zac move away on instinct. Pavina was a Silver Attendant, but he could sense she hadn’t used the equivalent of 1,000 attribute points when countering his opening salvo, and neither did she use the power of her inner world.

It was pure suppression through technique.

Still, the first swing had only been an attempt to get a sense of her strength, so Zac wasn’t deterred as he shot forward again. He was trying to perfect the Inexorable Stance, so he had to be unstoppable, intractable. An army of death that would never stop, that would inevitably quench all hope and life.

The air screamed, and he once more unleashed a barrage of strikes at the stationary Revenant. The swings of his axe aimed to kill, while his chains aimed to maim. All strikes were designed to force a response that would open up weaknesses or prevent Pavina from attacking, allowing him to control the momentum until he could launch a killing blow.

It was just a duel, but Zac didn’t hold anything back, confident that the Monarch wouldn’t succumb to his attacks. Zac wanted to showcase all he had to get the most incisive advice. But he had to admit there was also a part of him that wanted to prove himself, to trip up this powerful warrior who walked a similar path as he did.

However, no matter what he tried, he kept finding himself at a disadvantage. Her movements were minute but sublime, and Zac hadn’t even managed to push her off her prayer mat even after a full minute of trying everything in his repertoire. She simply avoided his attacks with pinpoint precision or deflected them with flicks of her hands that almost felt lazy.

The chains that were supposed to bind and restrict her somehow became fetters that kept getting in the way of Zac’s swings. Zac furiously pushed, but he couldn’t help feeling like a marionette that played out a stage fight that was directed by Pavina rather than himself.

“That’s enough,” Pavina said as she suddenly took a step forward, her left hand redirecting Zac’s axe as her right stabbed right for his throat.

She stopped her attack right before her nails broke the skin, but Zac’s hair still stood on end as he jumped backward. Throughout the fight, she had never used her superior attribute pool, and neither had she used the two spikes that seemed to be her weapon of choice. She hadn’t utilized any of her Daos either, though every movement of hers was obviously in tune with the Dao and the truths of the cosmos.

And Pavina was just the disciple. He still had to fight her master, who no doubt was many times more skilled than she was. He still had a long way to go.

“What are your Daos?” Pavina asked as they returned to the mats.

Zac hesitated before he decided to answer truthfully, considering his Daos weren’t some big secret. “Early Branch of the War Axe and Peak Fragment of the Coffin.”

“Pure Death through coffin. Death and conflict, restriction and destruction. Nothing groundbreaking, but an interesting application,” Pavina nodded as she looked at him with a mix of curiosity and confusion. “It is a solid path, but why is your implementation so chaotic? Your bloodline is as pure as they come, yet you seem to have no heritage to fall back on? What are your elders planning, having you derive everything on your own?”

“It’s a bit complicated, but I don’t have any masters or elders. I was born outside the empire, and I kind of got trapped here before getting the chance to visit,” Zac explained. “As you can tell, I’ve mostly cultivated on my own with the occasional feedback from outsiders.”

“Huh, you’re not an imperial?” Pavina said with interest. “Well, I’ve heard that the empire occasionally stumbles on small tribes who were lost during the great migration.”

“Do you have any instructions for me?” Zac said, eager to turn the discussion away from his unorthodox background.

“At first I was worried I’d ruin some old ancestor’s plan by meddling with your training, infusing my understanding into your path,” Pavina said. “But if what you say is true, then I think I can help clear some things up. Master told me to help as much as I can.”

“He did?” Zac said with surprise, remembering all-too-well how he was essentially thrown out of Kaldor’s castle.

“Don’t let his demeanor fool you,” Pavina smiled. “Lord Kaldor has worked hard for millennia, teaching and helping the undead warriors in this place. Many even believe he can leave any time he wants but chooses to suppress his cultivation for our sake.”

Zac was surprised to hear that the brusque Izh’Rak Reaver spent so much effort on the undead cultivators who were caught by the Orom.

“What should I do?” Zac asked, not wanting to waste the opportunity that Kaldor presented him. “I only have so much time, and progress will get harder and harder. Should I evolve my Dao Fragment before anything else?”

“Not unless you need the Contribution Points to survive the first shuffle,” Pavina countered. “A breakthrough now would hurt you more than it would help.”

“What?” Zac blurted. “Since when is evolving your Dao a bad thing?”

49

FORMATION AND INTEGRATION

Zac obviously understood it was bad to rush a Dao breakthrough with treasures, but that didn’t seem like what Pavina was referring to when saying that breaking through would be detrimental to him.

“Do you know about the stages of combat technique?” Pavina asked.

“Like forming a path or Dao Intent?” Zac ventured hesitantly.

“Intent is somewhat related, as are most things when it comes to cultivation. However, it is ultimately somewhat different to what I am referring to. If you hadn’t formed a path, you wouldn’t have been accepted by the Orom. Now, you’ve started working on a combat technique unique to you. From the ground up, by the looks of it,” the Revenant Monarch ventured, getting an affirmative nod from Zac.

“However, you have just started the journey. Most factions call the state you’re in the Formation Stage, though you have blurred the lines a bit.”

“Formation Stage,” Zac muttered, the term not ringing any bells.

“Truthfully, the vast majority of cultivators take a shortcut for this stage,” Pavina said, a small smile playing on her lips. “They choose to walk in the footsteps of their predecessors, learning the established techniques of their clans or sects before anything else. It is a central part of a proper heritage.”

Zac’s nodded in agreement. He’d read through the techniques of the Blade Emperor Heritage back home many times. Even if the methods and techniques listed there required a sword, Zac had still used them as reference many times when consolidating his foundations. By now, he had almost completely moved away from the concepts in that heritage through multiple iterations of his two stances.

“In the Formation Stage, you gradually create a technique suited to your temperament, build, weapon of choice, Daos, and so on. Bit by bit, you incrementally improve your technique until you’ve reached the limit of what you can accomplish. At the peak of perfection, this technique allows you to utilize every fiber of your being to accomplish your goals,” Pavina explained. “After mastering this stage, you reach the next: integration.”

The now-familiar sense of deadly crisis filled his heart as Pavina lazily pointed her finger in Zac’s direction, and it felt like a spear of untold power was pointed straight at his soul.

“You have great instincts,” Pavina nodded. “In the Integration Stage, your Dao and your technique become one as you directly instill the Heavenly truths you have gained into every action you take. At this stage, even those who follow a heritage have to reinvent the technique they learned growing up, adapting it to perfectly suit their path. This is an impassable barrier for most, even Hegemons, when they have to transition from being a follower to a pioneer.

“Striking will be as effortless as taking a breath, but as powerful as a thunderclap. The difference between someone who has entered the Integration Stage and someone who hasn’t is almost as palpable as the difference between someone who has infused their skill with their Dao and someone who hasn’t.”

Zac’s eyes widened a bit in shock, since that was no small improvement. Of course, the description was a bit imprecise considering the various levels of Daos, but it was just an idea.

“You said earlier that I have blurred the lines?” Zac hesitantly said. “What did you mean by that?”

“In your case, you are forming a technique, where most of your inspiration comes from your Daos,” Pavina explained. “There’s not anything inherently wrong with that, but your foundations are lacking. It’s making you create inefficient movements and techniques. If you don’t shore up the foundations with combat theory, your technique will end up with too many exploitable flaws that will be difficult to fix without reforming the whole stance over and over.”

“You’re saying I should improve my skills and technique first, and integrate my Dao later?” Zac asked with a thoughtful frown.

He had always thought his method was the way to go, where he slowly improved his combat style by drawing inspiration from his Daos and his path. But from how Pavina described it, he’d been putting the cart before the horse to some degree.

“Have I been wasting my time?” Zac grimaced.

“You’re just a child, so how much time could you possibly have wasted?” Pavina laughed. “You have created a decent foundation, and your style of self-discovery will aid you immensely down the road, where more orthodox cultivators will run into roadblocks. However, you are creating extra work for yourself. That might be fine on the outside, but here in the Orom World or against the deadline with my Master?

“Right now, you are trying to integrate your Daos and path into your combat style, but your stances are still not mature enough to properly bear their weight. Especially not your Dao Branch. Every time you gain an epiphany or deepen your understanding of combat, you both need to alter your combat style and then figure out how to properly integrate your Dao into the equation.

“Continuous improvements are a given on the road of cultivation. But if you first reach a point where you master your weapons and yourself, you will waste less time infusing your insights and reiterating,” Pavina patiently concluded. “Simply put, you know too little of basic combat theory to efficiently integrate your Dao. You need to learn to walk before you can run.”

Pavina’s words perfectly echoed what Kaldor said before he threw Zac out of his castle. Had the Izh’Rak Reaver actually spotted this weakness? Had Kaldor watched his fights in the arena, perhaps? Until now, Zac had held some reservations to what this newly minted Monarch was saying, but his instincts now told him what she said was mostly correct.

And this basic truth wasn’t something that would change because of his zero affinities or dual classes.

You could liken forming a stance to building a house. Right now, he was essentially ripping parts off from ceiling down to foundation every time he found some issue, which caused a ripple effect of issues cropping up. Pavina wanted him to first lay a solid foundation so that any future improvements would require less invasive adjustments.

This was both good news and bad news. The bad was that he seemed to have wasted some time over the past years. The good news was that he had still made enough progress to shock most Hegemons, even while following his imperfect training methodology. If he adapted his learning style, he might make even quicker gains going forward, which was great news, considering how much he had on his plate.

“In particular, your control of those chains of yours is atrocious,” Pavina added, dragging Zac out from his thoughts.

“I used a shield in the F-grade,” Zac wryly smiled. “I swapped over to this for various reasons.”

“An armament box is preferable to a shield for an offensively geared warrior like yourself,” Pavina nodded. “But your understanding of how to use it is laughably shallow.”

“Armament box?” Zac asked with confusion. “The coffin?”

“Armaments or Weapon Boxes are an interesting but slightly uncommon subdivision of weaponry,” Pavina explained. “They take many shapes, but they can most easily be likened to mother-daughter arrays. The box is the mother, and what it releases are the daughters. In your case, it’s a coffin and chains. But it can be anything from a sheath and flying swords to a hive and millions of poisonous insects.”

Zac knew of the concept, and had even encountered it a few times. But like Pavina said, it wasn’t that common a method, mostly because they had high demands on the user. Shooting out a thousand flying swords from a jumbo sheath had the potential to unleash terrifying waves of destruction, but that was only if you could properly control and empower them.

Not only did it require far more energy to keep going than a singular weapon, but it also put greater demands on your soul. Furthermore, while more units might mean more theoretical power, the risk of inadvertently creating an opening due to the complexity increased. This had become painfully apparent in his fight with Pavina, where the chains ultimately caused more trouble than they helped.

“Can you teach me?” Zac asked with some hope.

“I am hesitant to directly teach you any techniques,” Pavina rejected. “Your cultivation method is one of self-discovery, and me influencing your path will do you no good. I can help you point out the weaknesses in your basic combat theory through dueling, but you will have to find the solutions yourself.”

Zac nodded. He was somewhat disappointed, but that might be for the best. However, there was one part he didn’t quite get. “How does holding back my breakthrough factor into this?”

“Breaking through right now will not aid you in the short-term. If anything, the small boost of strength the prison brand will allow you to keep will become a crutch as you strive to improve yourself, hindering progress,” the Revenant said. “But also, it is theoretically easier to step into the Integration Stage the lower your Daos are.

“The moment your foundation is set and you have had some initial success with integrating your Dao, then you can form your second Dao Branch. Infusing the new insights into your technique will be far easier than forming your Dao Branch first and then infusing. It might save you months, years even. Besides, following the standard path, your Dao Branch will likely be better in tune with your desired outcome.”

Zac felt immensely lucky he had stumbled onto this opportunity. He had consulted over two dozen cultivators in this place over the past years, but no one, not even Travo Raso, had been nearly as helpful as Pavina had. Not since taking Yrial as a master had he received such incisive guidance on how to improve and climb out of the pitfalls he inadvertently jumped into.

“Incidentally, if you complete the Formation Stage and have initial success with your integration, you should be able to pass the fourth band of the Wilderness,” Pavina said.

“There should be stages after integration?” Zac asked curiously, considering integration only seemed to take you so far.

“Of course,” Pavina nodded. “After integration comes conception, where the perfect fusion of technique and Dao gives birth to something greater than the sum of its parts. It will allow you to bring forth might that rivals that of skills with a simple swing of your blade. Add Miasma to the equation… and few will be your match.”

“How many bands would someone that mastered the Conception Stage walk?” Zac asked curiously.

“Mastered the Conception Stage?” Pavina snorted with disdain. “Even an Early Monarch would be able to walk freely in the Wilderness.”

“What!” Zac exclaimed. “That powerful? Then it’s the peak of technique?”

“Not at all,” Pavina said. “It’s enough to become a foundation when confirming your Dao, but it is not the end. The next stage after conception is the Domain of Worldly Laws, but it requires an extremely deep understanding of the Dao.”

“Worldly laws…” Zac muttered. “So all Divine Monarchs have mastered the Conception Stage?”

“There are innumerable too many paths to power. Altogether, I’d say that less than 1% of all Divine Monarchs have mastered the Conception Stage,” Pavina smiled. “For example, mages generally don’t train in this way. It’s mostly infighters who follow this path, and many of us don’t even put that much weight into integrating our Dao with our technique.”

“But if it provides that much power…” Zac hesitated.

“It’s a matter of time invested compared to what you get in return,” Pavina explained. “You should have realized this while traveling the Orom World. Elevating technique doesn’t come easy to most people, while you appear to be decently talented in this regard. Most are better off working on other methods to improve themselves. Bloodlines and constitutions, domains and intent. Body Refinement, Soul Cultivation, Earthly and Heavenly Harmonization, and Mystical Calculation. These are just a few. Many clans, sects, and factions have their own unique abilities that will help their members on the road of cultivation.”

Zac recognized some of the methods Pavina listed, but not all. The list almost felt overwhelming, considering it proved there were so many ways he could still improve in his current grade.

“Supportive professions and methods such as formations, divination, poison mastery, trapping, beast mastery are others. Your utilization of a supportive armament could be considered such a path,” the Revenant added. “So just a few of all Monarchs focus on perfecting technique. But all Divine Monarchs have inherently entered the Integration Stage based on their understanding of the Dao alone.”

“So many methods,” Zac muttered with dismay.

“It’s not like you’re supposed to study them all. As I said, there are many roads to power. What are you going to do? Cut yourself into pieces so you can walk them all?” Pavina snorted. “Even if you’re supremely talented, you have to discard some and focus on those that bring the most value for the time invested.

“For example, what if you grew another arm? In theory, it’s another limb to hit your enemies with, so shouldn’t you grow it? What about five arms? One hundred? Cultivation isn’t just about adding new tools to your belt,” the Revenant explained.

“But the Heaven's Chosen have more layers of advantages compared to normal people,” Zac said.

“Of course. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be chosen. Background, talent, opportunity. It all plays a factor in how many unique advantages you can accumulate into one path. But an understanding of one’s self is the most important in reaching the greatest heights. Too many geniuses find themselves stuck too early.

“They consider themselves the proud sons of the Nine Heavens and integrate one grand heritage or concept after another into their path. Eventually, their baggage becomes too heavy, and their cores or inner worlds fail to contain it all,” Pavina smiled. “Then again, those who don’t take risks will never stand out from the masses. And out of hundreds of trillions of geniuses who risk it all, a Supremacy might be born.”

Zac slowly nodded as he took a deep breath to clear his mind. The A-grade was too far away for him to even consider, and his thoughts turned to his options for getting stronger over the next three years.

It was also just like Pavina said. Cultivation wasn’t just about adding new tools to his belt. He had so many things to work on, from his soul cultivation, to Daos, to his technique. He’d die an old man in the E-grade if he strove to perfect every single facet, so there wasn’t a need to add anything more at this point.

“What do you recommend I do?” Zac eventually asked after having digested Pavina’s teachings. “Return to the second band, and fight without instilling my Daos and technique?”

“If you feel that perfecting your combat technique is the best way to spend your time, then you need to first shore up your foundations. Let me ask you, have you upgraded your mastery skill?” Pavina asked.

“Uh…” Zac coughed, having pretty much forgotten about those skills.

“I thought so. Felt too talented for the basic courses, eh?” Pavina grinned. “I could sense that you have [Axe Mastery] at least, which probably is why your axework is far superior to the control of your chains. Go evolve your [Axe Mastery] and then buy [Armament Mastery] if you have an available slot. Come back when both are Middle E-grade Proficiency. I’ll spar with you again at that point.”

“Thank you so much,” Zac said as he stood, sensing the session was over.

“Those small suggestions can’t be considered anything much,” Pavina laughed. “You’d get the same advice in any sect or clan.”

“Still, it was helpful to me,” Zac said. “I’ll remember the favor.”

From there, he left, heading for Samsara’s Edge. Five days later, he emerged from the Contribution Store with a skill crystal containing [Armament Mastery]. He hesitated, but eventually went into one of the empty houses to learn the skill. The reason for his hesitation was that [Armament Mastery] actually took up the same spot as the Peak proficiency [Bulwark Mastery], forcing him to give up on the old skill to learn the new.

Zac shook off the hesitation and rebranded the skill. He’d already made his decision long ago, and all of his shield-based skills except [Vanguard of Undeath] were gone. That skill would eventually make the transition as well, as soon as he decided on exactly how he wanted to reform it. He had held off until now, as the way he fought using Inexorable Stance kept changing.

Hopefully, he would find the answer for that issue as he progressed toward the Integration Stage.

A wave of nostalgia hit him as the familiar guiding lights appeared in his vision as he activated the new skill, this time pathing trajectories for the chains of his replacement coffin. It was just like when he learned the basics of swinging his hatchet back on Demon Island, lost and alone in a forest crawling with Barghest, Gwyllgi, and Imps.

Zac only played with the skill for a few minutes before teleporting to the Wilderness, choosing to enter the first band. His meeting had been a wake-up call. It was time to build the foundation that would take him all the way to Divine Monarchy and beyond.

50

TECHNIQUE

The chains of [Chainbox], the working name of Zac’s spare coffin, caused the whole ravine to be drowned in a raucous rattling which was continuously reinforced and multiplicated by the iron-rich cliffs to his sides. The clamor was almost at the level of a mental attack by this point, which Zac barely noticed as he focused on perfecting his control over his armament.

Fifty meters away, a harried mountain rat with metal plating desperately tried to break out from its besiegement, the four chains of [Chainbox] causing an inescapable net around the bison-sized critter. A few of the clashing sounds of metal against metal came from the links slamming into the damaged scales, but most of the sounds actually came from the chains colliding with each other.

Looking back at his fight with Pavina month ago, Zac almost wanted to dig a ditch and hide in it out of shame. He’d been so full of vigor, feeling like he was inching closer and closer to the true meaning of inexorability, a restrictive stance that embodied Death and Conflict. But all the while he had used his chains, a major component of restricting and seizing the momentum, like a flailing orangutang.

It also made him want to apologize to Alea for wasting such a precious resource. Unfortunately, she was still in a passive state as she hung from his neck. Even now, years later, Zac had no idea what was going on. For all he knew, she was still absorbing the massive amounts of energies she swallowed from Uona, along with the purifier ball she ate just as they entered the Void.

It was also possible she’d completed the absorption but her evolution was restricted by the Orom. Zac could probably break the seal on the necklace with his Void Energy, but he didn’t dare in case it would hurt Alea’s progress. He would have to wait and find out when he got out of here. For now, [Chainbox] would have to do.

He’d always considered the chains to be a flexible addition to his repertoire; within a limit. He could control their force and direction, which pretty much made him consider them as mobile spears he could stab into his enemies. If the target was weakened enough that Zac believed the chains would hold, he could bind them.

But that was barely scratching the surface.

Over the past month, he had gone through innumerable variations with his chains as he walked through the early reaches of the first band. He had exclusively focused on mastering his armament as he evolved his newly acquired mastery skill, and he only used his axe when out of options. Over the last three days, he’d only been forced to do so four times.

It didn’t seem like much considering he was fighting the weakest of all the beasts in the Wilderness, but Zac knew it was a huge accomplishment. After all, he didn’t use his Daos, and neither did he use any skills. He simply followed the various concepts hidden inside [Armament Mastery] to take out beasts with twice his attributes. He’d soaked up the teachings like a sponge, rapidly turning them into something practical and deadly.

Zac was first worried he would have to scrap the Inexorable Stance altogether to fix its underlying issues, but that wasn’t the case. He simply put aside the concepts of Death and Conflict for a moment, and instead focused on the underlying theory. Trajectories, movements, pathing, tempo, momentum.

One by one, these concepts were rehauled as [Armament Mastery] went from Early to High mastery, and Zac was shocked to see how much his lethality improved. The first few days, every single beast managed to break out from the proverbial cage of chains, only to increasingly find themselves helpless against Zac’s techniques.

He had also used the Peak proficiency [Axe Mastery] a bit between fights to give himself a refresher course to see if he’d missed something. Looking at it with a fresh set of eyes after having worked on a technique of his own, he was both embarrassed and delighted to see how many insights were hidden in the seemingly simple swings.

It wasn’t just about the Dao of the Axe, and neither were the ever-flowing set of attacks empty receptacles to be filled with his Daos to reach the Integration Stage. It was like every marked-out trajectory contained a lesson on everything from tactics to momentum, if you knew to listen. They were unsullied by outside concepts, unblemished by biases or the influence of classes or anything else.

The rat screeched with helpless frustration as it swirled and lashed its tail at one of the chains that slithered around it like a snake. The collision pushed the chain away, slamming it into a second. However, with a small mental nudge from Zac, this transfer of momentum allowed him to alter the trajectory of the second chain.

The chain that had previously stopped the rat from escaping took a sharp turn. With the boost of speed from the rat’s attack, it shot forward, piercing straight into the eye of the beast as it completed its swipe. It was almost like the rat had given the push then delivered itself to be slaughtered. Although the truth wasn’t so simple.

Zac felt the minute influx of energy as he replayed the battle in his mind. The chains were not separate entities, they were one. There was always cause and effect, where even the enemy was becoming a part of the method. This method of control was the greatest takeaway over the past month, and it was what had skyrocketed his efficiency with his chains.

The chains were only so nimble, but a simple collision could change everything. It could allow a sharp turn, block strikes by shifting a part of the chain into position, and create a general pressure through constant changes and variations. Before, Zac had almost only focused on the end-point of the chains. Now, the whole length was fast becoming an instrument to be manipulated.

There were an endless number of patterns that could spring from simple collisions between the four chains he used. Different types of collisions caused different effects, and you could create a chain reaction that became harder and harder to anticipate for the target. And all this could be further manipulated by Zac infusing energy into the chains, retracting, extending, turning, and empowering them.

This ability bordered into the techniques of some types of mages, who created inescapable nets of death by planning dozens of steps ahead like in a chess game. Zac had no goal to take this theory to its limits though, and he was happy if he could smoothly generate two-step attacks like the one that killed the steel rat. Any more than that, and the patterns would become too complex for him to manage.

After all, his axework was ultimately the main driving force in his combat style, and he had no interest in changing that up. As long as he had the mental capability and energy reserves to add something to his combat stance to make it more lethal, why not? Especially when the chains tied into his Dao and his skills.

Zac soon enough found another target to hunt, this time a group of three stocky lizards that could very well have been dinosaurs, considering their three-meter length. His hair danced from the wind the four chains kicked up as they shot forward, instantly putting the three animals on the defensive. The clattering of chains once more echoed through the mountainous regions, intermingled with the angry roars of the beasts.

Fighting and restraining three beasts was far more difficult, but Zac had become a lot more skilled in restraining without actually binding someone. The moment one of the beasts tried to break away, one of its brethren stumbled into him, tripped up by a sneaky chain or trying to avoid a strike at their vitals.

Meanwhile, the third one was forced to move so its body became a barrier when the beast got ready to rush out again. This was the kind of restriction he aimed for, and he wasn’t even using his Daos to accomplish it. If he wanted, Zac could have pushed [Armament Mastery] to Peak mastery in a few days, but he wanted to completely digest every piece of information.

The goal during this outing wasn’t simply to maximize his lethality and push deeper into the Wilderness. It was to accomplish his goals with the smallest possible investment, just like how Pavina created wonders with her minute movements. The fights over the past month made Zac truly appreciate what Kaldor and Pavina meant by saying he needed to learn to walk before he could run.

Apart from leaving hidden flaws in his technique, he had been wasting so much energy and effort by trying to solve every little thing through his understanding of the Dao. Revisiting the mastery skills made him realize he was dreadfully inefficient in this manner. Some things did not need a fancy solution.

His fight with Adcarkas had been eye-opening, where for the first time, he saw true integration of Dao into movements. But it had also saddled him with bad habits. In a sense, it was like taking a helicopter to your next-door neighbor to borrow a cup of sugar. It technically worked, but it was way too much work.

Zac had ample stores of both Miasma and Mental Energy to bear this kind of inefficiency, though this wasn’t just about energy conservation. It was more about time management. The more he could accomplish with small actions during a fight, the bigger the time window he would have to unleash his skills or killing blows.

One beast after another fell, leaving Zac the last man standing. It was time. He could feel the buildup in the skill fractal in his chest, and Zac rushed toward the hidden site he’d prepared.

Over the last few days, he had been essentially walking in a circle in the mountain range. In the middle of the circle, he prepared a cultivation cave where he could reach Peak mastery of [Armament Mastery] in peace. Soon enough, he reached the secluded cave, and he activated the set of arrays he arranged beforehand.

The cave was sealed, and the chance of any beast finding this place in the next couple of weeks was extremely small, let alone the few hours he needed to undergo the vision. After lighting up three sticks of incense, Zac sat down on his prayer mat, no longer holding back the breakthrough.

A moment later, his vision changed, and Zac saw an elderly man walking up a lush mountain with a weave basket on his back. Out of the forest, six masked men jumped out, clearly full of ill intent. Just as they were about to decapitate the old man, the lid to the basket rose and a large wooden hand emerged, blocking their advance.

The hand wasn’t something born from nature like the hand of [Arcadia’s Judgment]. It was rather meticulously carved and painted to almost look like the real thing. After the hand, a lanky figure emerged from the basket, stepping out in front of the old man. It was a six-armed demon, where two hands held stakes and another two hammers.

The demon flew forward with such speed, it almost looked like teleportation, driving a stake through the head of one of the assailants, its jab dreadfully quick. Two of the masked attackers tried to circumvent the demon, but Zac was surprised to see them suddenly falling down as their bodies were cleanly cut apart. Only then did Zac notice the dozens of nigh-invisible strings that ran from the basket to the demon.

After a few seconds, all the attackers were dead, and the demon separated into thirty smaller parcels that flew back into the basket as the old man continued on his journey.

The next scene depicted a warrior with a scarred marble statue on his back. Embedded in it were eight weapons, each one unique of a distinct design. One by one they were dragged out and flew off to fight the cultivator’s enemies, the blades working together as smoothly as a professional hunting party.

One such scene replaced the next, and Zac’s horizons kept getting wider as he saw one odd method replace another. There were puppeteers, insect controllers, armorers, array masters, and all kinds of unique fighting styles. Mages who had somehow pre-stored spells in a backpack, poison masters who unleashed unholy mixtures upon their surroundings, there seemed to be no limit to what was possible with armaments.

Some of the techniques were only tenuously related to his coffin-and-chains-combination, but they did display how one should fight using the mother-daughter weapon type. Most of the cultivators he saw had their armament as main weapon, while some used it like Zac to reinforce or complement their main attack.

Out of all the visions, the one Zac felt most familiar with depicted a reptilian man using two tulwars as main weapons. On his back, a beautiful set of steel wings hung, where the largest feathers at the edge could detach and be controlled. They were razor-sharp, like small knives that cut through the air, tormenting the reptilian’s enemies from the flanks while he unleashed a storm of carnage with his swords.

Zac awoke, but didn’t immediately move out. Instead, he sat in his cave, ruminating over his Inexorable Stance. What should it look like? Even now, he wasn’t thinking in conceptual terms like the inevitability of death, but in simpler terms.

What kind of technique should he strive for? What kind of footwork? What roles should the chains ultimately have? What kind of strikes should he use with his axe? Should he battle head-on or adapt a style of quick strikes before creating distance? Had he gone wrong anywhere with what he’d built so far, focusing on Dao more than on himself?

Ten days passed when Zac finally opened his eyes again, and he exited his cave. A beast lumbered in the distance, but he didn’t bother with it, instead making a beeline in the direction of the second band with the help of [Abyssal Phase]. Two days later, he found a target at the edge of the second band—a two-meter-tall macaque surrounded by arcs of lightning.

It was one of the rulers of the first zone of the Wilderness, a perfect sparring partner to put his latest theories to the test. The primate immediately engaged, and a wave of lightning shot toward Zac. He used one of his chains to soak up the lightning and disperse it into the ground while the other three continued toward the beast.

This time, Zac went forward as well, and the arcs of blue lightning were reflected in his axehead as he swung his weapon in a seemingly straightforward arc. While it wasn’t imbued with the concepts of death or his Branch of the War Axe which Zac had infused into the Inexorable Stance before, it still managed to leave a deep wound in the primate’s chest. It was like his swing was invisible to the hulking monkey.

The effect wasn’t thanks to superior attributes or the Dao, but rather due to the smart usage of his chains. While one chain dealt with the lightning, the other three targeted the beast. Through constant collisions with each other, the ground, and the animal’s razor-sharp claws, they formed a confusing tangle that could deliver a strike from seemingly any direction.

This alone forced the beast to spread its awareness, not only targeting the undead warrior in front of it. Finally, a snap from two chains colliding right by the animal’s right ear, followed by a swipe against its right haunches, provided a short window of opportunity where the left side of its chest was wide open.

The monkey instantly realized its mistake, but it was too late. It only managed to generate a lightning field to protect itself, and Zac’s powerful strike still managed to leave a grievous wound almost unopposed. After delivering such a strike, it was just a matter of time before the primate fell.

He’d managed to reach the edge of the first band without using any skills or Daos. Of course, this accomplishment was not just thanks to [Armament Mastery]. Most of his strength ultimately came from the past two years of refining his technique, even if his method had been a bit inefficient.

The kind of trickery with sounds and feints that deceived the macaque would be less useful against a hardened veteran, but it was a proof of concept that he could create a very similar effect to his old Inexorable Stance without even infusing any of his Daos into his technique. It was akin to creating a restrictive formation with the help of the constantly moving chains.

As long as he integrated his Dao insights into his current stance, it should reach a completely new level of power. Zac shook his head, ignoring the tempting voices in the back of his head. Instead, he left the Wilderness, heading for the skill-upgrading chambers in Samsara’s Edge.

It was time to enter phase two of his training.

51

MASTERY

Zac appeared in the teleporter of Samsara’s Edge with a flash of light, and settled inside one of the empty buildings as took out an information crystal. It was a short missive on mastery skills, something he picked up for 150 Purchase Points when buying the [Armament Mastery] skill. Even now, he hadn’t actually read it, afraid that its contents would influence his training right when he was at the beginning of learning.

Now that he’d reached Peak mastery, he didn’t have those reservations any longer, so he curiously read through the materials. Most of the missive was a list of different categories of mastery skills, along with examples. There were a lot more types of mastery skills than he expected. They included not only weaponry, but also all kinds of arcane specialties and crafts.

The latter, unfortunately, only worked for non-combat classes, dashing Zac’s hopes of an easily-acquired skill like alchemy or blacksmithing.

The most relevant part of the missive related to upgrades, and it was quite straightforward. The consensus was that the mastery skills weren’t technically true skills. They didn’t contain the essence behind the teachings, and it was more accurate to consider them daughter arrays to the System. Therefore, the only step needed to upgrade the skills was to increase the detail of the pathways, and he already knew how to do that.

However, the missive also included an extremely interesting snippet of information, something which confirmed a suspicion of his. Mastery skills had two empty sockets, where one was recommended to leave a pattern representing one’s Daos. That meant, he could leave two marks of his Dao Branch in [Axe Mastery], and the impartments would be slightly adjusted to suit his flavor of axe usage.

The same could be said for his armament mastery, but that was where Zac became a bit hesitant. He hadn’t spent much time as a human lately, and his Evolutionary Stance had fallen even further behind. However, he couldn’t help but wonder if the addition of an armament wouldn’t help elevate that stance as well.

He had the skill already, and the ability to make something of it. Using a coffin and chains might not be the optimal route for his human side, but the vision from [Armament Mastery] had shown that only one’s imagination limited what kind of armaments could be created. Perhaps something like vines?

Would it be a mistake, locking the mastery skill to his Fragment of the Coffin? Should he avoid attunement altogether or should he balance the skill fractal out with the Fragment of the Bodhi? Part of him wanted to return to Pavina and confer with her on this matter. But he didn’t, his hesitation about divulging his duality keeping him at an impasse.

Ultimately, he decided to add his Life-based Dao to the skill fractal. He’d constantly been going over his stances this past month, and the more he thought about it, the more sense it made to mirror his two sides. He had ultimately returned to the basics, but some things wouldn’t change with his path.

One stance represented change and breaking fate, the other stillness and inevitability. One side was Death, the other Life. Evolution and Inexorability, these two represented polar opposites that would grow over time, until they reached the highest domain.

Zac felt his two sides needed to stay aligned, even if their core values were each other’s opposites. Like yin and yang. For while the two stances were currently separate, Zac had the notion of fusing the two into one supreme path through conflict down the road.

Having arrived at this conclusion, Zac immediately set out, filled with motivation as he entered the facilities at the edge of the city. He booked an unattuned cultivation chamber, which was a higher-quality version of the [Fractal Framework Array]. Unfortunately, there were no attuned Life-Death chambers in this place, so Zac would have to do it on his own.

Zac took out two attuned natural treasures just in case he needed some liquid inspiration, though Zac didn’t think it would be required. The array hummed to life, and he infused the skill fractal of [Armament Mastery] into a large crystal in the center of the room. At the same time, he felt a soothing stream of pure Mental Energy seep into his soul while his thoughts became as clear as crystal, proof of the high quality of the chamber.

Things progressed as expected over the next few hours. The basic patterns of the skill fractal were as simple as they came, barely at the level of a low-quality skill. Most of the effort was spent adding two Dao arrays to the skill fractal. The patterns were a simplified manifestation of his Daos, their appearance based on the two Dao Avatars in his Soul Aperture.

The two trees, one radiant and the other withered with the coffin hanging from its only branch, were now residing on one of the outer cores each. The axe avatar that looked like himself had once more taken its place on the main core, and its eyes were closed in meditation.

Eventually, the upgrade process was complete, and Zac eagerly returned the skill fractal into his pathways before opening his Skill Screen.

[E] Armament Mastery (Bodhi & Coffin) – Proficiency: Early. The seed is planted as you strive for mastery. Upgradeable.

The skill was still upgradeable, though Zac read in the missive that D-grade was the last stage of the skill. After that, you would have to search for answers yourself, which Zac figured was fair enough. A Monarch really should be at the stage where they knew what to do. The two Daos he instilled into the skill were listed as well, proving his infusion had worked.

Zac’s next step made him hesitate, but he ultimately chose to leave the chamber and transform into his human form elsewhere, before renting another upgrade chamber.

This time, he was planning on upgrading [Axe Mastery], but he was apprehensive on how to form the patterns for his Dao Branch. It felt weird trying to draw a small version of himself, like how his Dao Avatar looked. Ultimately, Zac created two different patterns, each one looking like one of the two axes his avatar used as he swapped between forms.

The upgrade went without any surprises, and he returned to his temporary home in the city. Full of curiosity, he activated [Axe Mastery], and saw the familiar trajectories appear in the living room. Zac started following the guidance, but a frown appeared on his face after a couple of minutes.

The proposed trajectories were identical to when he used the Peak mastery F-grade skill. Nothing new was shown. Zac thought it over before he infused the fractal with his Branch of the War Axe, and he nodded in satisfaction when they changed. Exactly how the strikes differed were a bit hard to pinpoint, but as he went through the motions, they felt extremely comfortable.

That didn’t mean the old trajectories were bad or anything. It was like the difference between wearing a nice-fitting suit and a tailored one. But having taken a shortcut into the Integration Stage once already, Zac could tell this wasn’t the same thing. While there were echoes of his Dao behind the small alterations, the swings were still just normal techniques.

The more he followed the patterns, the clearer it became. The mastery skill showed a shadow of the Integration Stage, where pure technique had started getting influenced by Heavenly truths. Even if there was just a hint of it inside the swings, Zac was ecstatic, as he instantly detected a few mistakes he’d committed with his old integration of the Evolutionary Stance.

Zac believed that as long as he managed to grasp these differences and the underlying reasons behind them, he would not only have an easier time integrating his Daos in the future, but also understand his Dao better. He tried imbuing his other two Daos Fragments into the skill fractal, but unsurprisingly, he was met with resistance before it failed. He’d branded the fractals with his Daos, and the others wouldn’t work anymore.

He kept experimenting with the two skills for two days until he returned to the Wilderness in his undead form, this time starting from the second band.

Zac was no longer solely focusing on the chains as he began his latest assault on the wildlife, but was rather integrating what he learned over the last month into his reformed Inexorable Stance. It mostly went fine, but he found himself unable to completely utilize all the tricks he picked up from [Armament Mastery].

There were simply too many variables to control. Himself and his axe, along with the constantly moving chains. That alone was hard enough to keep track of. Add to that one or multiple enemies, most of which wouldn’t react as one hoped. Thankfully, there was ample room for improvement.

The more he fought, the more the lessons from [Armament Mastery] were elevated from being a mastered ability into instinct that required no thought. One day, the complex movements would hopefully become second nature to him, so that he could solely focus on his axe and his enemy.

The days passed as he moved across the second band of the Wilderness. He didn’t move past the midpoint, content in fighting the earlier parts. This time around, he occasionally swapped over to his human side to reference the teachings hidden inside the E-grade [Axe Mastery]. Unsurprisingly, it was also this skill that first reached middle proficiency after just two weeks.

It had roughly been eight years since the integration by now, and he reached Peak proficiency of the F-grade [Axe Mastery] during the first year, inside the Tower of Eternity. Since then, he had continued improving his axework on his own, and had already discovered most of the lessons in the upgraded version of the mastery skill through battle.

Some discoveries allowed him to advance his techniques, but reaching middle mastery was mostly about gaining a deeper understanding of many things he was already doing by instinct. After having reached middle mastery of [Axe Mastery] he focused more on his other mastery skill.

Of course, Zac’s true goal wasn’t to evolve these skills. It was to improve his techniques, so most of his time was spent in combat or meditation where he inched closer to perfection. Because of that, it took another two months before he reached middle mastery of [Armament Mastery] and managed to infuse the concepts into his Inexorable Stance.

A lot of time had passed already since accepting the quest, but Zac wasn’t stressed at all about not having returned to the third band. He knew just how much he had improved over these four months. He would be able to push deep, deep into the third band by the time he returned, perhaps even conquer the whole thing. But for now, he left the Wilderness to visit his new teacher.

“You’re back,” Pavina nodded when Zac returned to her mansion. “Close to four months. Not too long, not too short. Interesting. Come, show me what you’ve learned.”

Zac shot forward, the chains of [Chainbox] forming a strangling tangle of cold hard metal while he rushed straight for the Revenant herself. Pavina smiled as she looked around, and started to clash with the chains to force her momentum on her surroundings.

However, Zac was like the surging tides as he unleashed a ceaseless barrage of strikes. Every time Pavina flicked one of the chains, another one came to the rescue by offsetting the momentum she created. Even then, Zac found himself overwhelmed, even if Pavina only used techniques equivalent to the Formation Stage.

Still, he managed to hold on for almost twenty seconds before he found a finger pointed against his heart as she broke through his defenses, forcing an opening when he tried to land a strike with his axe.

“Continue,” Pavina said as she took a step back, and the two resumed their duel without missing a beat.

Last time, their sparring session didn’t even last two minutes. But this time, they fought for half an hour. Even though Zac gradually improved as he got used to fighting a person rather than a bunch of beasts, Pavina managed to land a strike at his vitals almost fifty times.

“Not too bad,” Pavina nodded when they stopped. “While four months is too short to make any real progress with your armament, they are no longer an active hindrance, at least. Rest an hour, then we duel again.”

Zac nodded in thanks. Her comment wasn’t the real teaching, it was the duel itself. Every time she tapped his vitals, she’d pointed out a glaring weakness in his stance. He closed his eyes and replayed the fight in his mind, going over every single moment in search of solutions. Just like she said the last time, he would have to find the answers himself.

Soon enough, Zac stood and started to slowly swing his axe as the chains drew graceful arcs through the air. In his mind, he once more saw Pavina’s hand heading for his heart, and he shifted his weight while the chains moved to intercept. However, he soon stopped with a shake of his head and reset his position, trying something else.

His first response would have solved the attack if it was static, but it wasn’t like Pavina wouldn’t adapt and change her attack if he directly tried to block. Over and over, he replayed that first hit, not only going over his measures, but how the Revenant would respond. Eventually, he found a solution as he managed to force a situation of mutual destruction, where his chains would have pierced her gut if she went through with the strike.

From there, Zac would have seized the momentum, where he could strike her down with his axe before she could attack again. In this manner, Zac went through the whole battle one exchange after another, trying various things to solve the most glaring issues Pavina had pointed out. The Revenant Monarch didn’t offer any further advice. She had closed her eyes in meditation while Zac entered an almost magical state where he knew no exhaustion.

Eventually, he found solutions for all the strikes Pavina unleashed, though they were still just theories that needed to be tested and confirmed. He stopped swinging his weapon and turned to Pavina, who eventually opened her eyes and leveled an even stare at him.

“I’m sorry, how long was I doing this?” Zac coughed, realizing he’d completely lost track of time.

“Three,” Pavina sighed.

“Three hours?” Zac muttered. “It actually felt like long—”

“Three weeks, you lunatic,” Pavina said with a roll of her eyes. “What kind of person overshoots their one-hour deadline by over five hundred hours!”

“What?” Zac exclaimed as he looked around.

“I must be a more talented teacher than I thought with how I managed to inspire an epiphany,” Pavina smiled, clearly not as annoyed as she pretended. “Well, luckily I wasn’t in a hurry. Come, let’s see if your bout of inspiration bore any fruit.”

They battled again, and while he was still essentially toyed with, Zac managed to stretch the time between hits by another fifteen seconds.

“Not bad. It seems this path is right for you,” Pavina nodded. “Go ahead, figure out the kinks somewhere else. Come back when you’ve reached High mastery with the two skills.”

“When can I start properly integrating my Dao again?” Zac asked before he left.

“After you’ve reached Peak mastery of the two skills and consolidated what you’ve learned,” Pavina said without hesitation. “Now, go.”

“Alright, thank you again. I’ll see you in a few months,” Zac smiled.

“Bring something to drink the next time, will you?” Pavina said. “Common courtesy.”

“Of course,” Zac hurriedly nodded as he took out a couple of barrels from his stock. It was lucky that more than half of the Spatial Rings he’d snatched in the Void contained liquor, with how thirsty all the residents of the Orom World were. Otherwise, he would have run out long ago.

Zac exited the mansion, leaving the Revenant standing by her meditation spot, her eyes fixed on Zac’s receding back.

“Absolute monster…” Pavina muttered with shock evident in her eyes. “What kind of progress is this? Is this the Heritage of Draug? But why is his spirituality so faint?”

52

VIVI

With the flaws in his training method corrected, Zac returned to the routine where he rotated between wanton slaughter in the Wilderness, duels in the arena, and short periods of secluded cultivation. Part of him wanted to rush toward the peak with the two E-grade mastery skills and conquer the third band, but he reined himself in.

The first month after his second duel with Pavina he made good progress, as he gradually patched up the mistakes she’d pointed out. This time, it took a bit longer, since he wasn’t able to enter that marvelous state he enjoyed after they met. However, problems arrived when he completed the fixes and strove to move forward with the new teachings in the Middle proficiency mastery skills.

Zac was continuously beset with the impression he was missing something, like something was holding him back. At first, the feeling was just a small annoyance, like a fly buzzing around his head. Zac figured it was simply due to it becoming harder and harder to incorporate the techniques.

After reaching Middle mastery, the trajectories and strikes the skills showcased became even more sublime. They didn’t only exact extreme requirements on force and momentum, there was also something ethereal about them that defied being easily grasped. Like every swing contained thousands of variations, and every time he performed the attacks, Zac sensed something different.

Sometimes, the sensation left him with more questions than answers, and he often found himself stuck at an impasse. However, while the difficulty was ramping up, he did ultimately make steady progress. The feeling of mismatch, of his stance being incomplete, seemed to stem from something else.

Eventually, that notion became so palpable he chose to return to Pavina before evolving his mastery skills to Late proficiency. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any easy solutions, even after fighting for half an hour.

“How odd,” Pavina muttered when they finished their sparring session. “I cannot discern what the source of your hesitation is. There are still weaknesses in your stance, but that is to be expected. I don’t get the sense of lacking you mention.”

“Should I just ignore it?” Zac asked hesitantly. “Is it just in my head?”

“No,” Pavina said. “You should trust your instincts in cases like this. Me not understanding the issue doesn’t mean it’s not there. I am just an outsider, and cultivation is ultimately a personal journey. You are still ahead of schedule. I suggest you slow down and search for answers before moving forward. You might have missed something.”

“Alright…”

Zac returned to the Wilderness, trying to find the answer to his problems through battle, but the more he fought the more he found himself at an impasse. Had he reached the limits of his comprehension? No, Zac still felt there was room for improvement without infusing his Daos. Eventually, he chose to swap over to his human side and work on his Evolutionary Stance to clear his head for a few days.

Most of his training in the past two years had been related to foundational techniques rather than the deathly aspect of his other stance, and these teachings had to be integrated into his Life-attuned stance sooner or later. Having already gone over everything once, Zac figured it would be even quicker the second time around. Besides, Zac figured it might spark some inspiration that would solve his predicament.

Zac decided to stop breaking through levels as well. He’d found that the damage to his pathways, foundations, and soul after forcibly breaking open the nodes in his head was slowing the derivation of his techniques. Since he didn’t need the Contribution Points from the levels, he stopped at level 139 just to make sure this wasn’t the problem. It was just one level short of Yrial’s requirement, and he still had over two years to spare.

By that time, he should be able to push a couple of levels with pills again.

Zac could only pray that these measures were enough. If this didn’t work, would he have to cultivate his soul or something, in the hopes that greater mental prowess would help him deduce the stances quicker? After all, Zac felt he was improving a lot faster since arriving at the Orom World compared to before. It might be the environment, though it might also be his soul evolution that had sped up his progress.

Or would he be forced to integrate his Daos on an imperfect foundation, just so he would survive the duel? It should work, but Zac was reluctant to do so now that he had finally found the path.

He quickly got absorbed with the cultivation of the Evolutionary Stance, and days turned to weeks. It was as Zac hoped. With already having gone through this once, he made rapid progress retooling his Life-based technique. More importantly, as he stayed in his human form, the feeling of incompleteness grew fainter and fainter.

It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was going on by that point. It was the imbalance between stances that caused trouble.

The two stances represented the two branches of his cultivation path, and they were ultimately part of one system. What Zac hadn’t expected was that they were so interconnected, that he became hard-pressed to progress one side if the other lagged behind. There was no logical reason behind it, as far as he could tell. Zac supposed it was either a mental block because his path required equilibrium or there might be some other underlying theories that were beyond him.

Ultimately, the reason didn’t matter. He’d found the cause and the solution—he just needed to simultaneously put in some effort on his human side. Another two weeks passed, and Zac finished integrating the techniques equivalent to Peak F-grade of the mastery skills. However, when he started infusing [Armament Mastery] with the Fragment of the Bodhi, he ran into some issues.

As expected, using [Coffinbox] was extremely uncomfortable in his human form. It had already been a noticeable issue when he trained the unattuned techniques, but it became worse after his attacks started containing a hint of Life. The trajectories still appeared when activating the skill, but everything felt wrong.

Chains had become indelibly interlinked with his concept of Death, from the hanging coffin to [Love’s Bond] and the restrictive nature of Inexorable Stance. Even worse, he believed the issue would only worsen when [Love’s Bond] woke up, considering it was infused with Oblivion by now.

Soon enough, Zac found the experience unbearable, and he left the Wilderness to seek counsel. He didn’t head to Pavina though, but rather someone else.

“Don’t you have the solution for this already?” Ubo asked with confusion when Zac visited the elemental to confer with him.

It would be weird to ask Pavina about this issue, so he sought out a Life-based Monarch instead. Besides, Zac needed to send a message to Three Virtues that he was dealing with Kaldor and the splinter, to make sure the shifty monk didn’t do something with the Shard of Creation.

“I do?” Zac said.

“Just go visit Heda. She has tens of thousands of different types of plants, and she’s one of the five most skilled Arborists in the Orom World,” Ubo said. “Among us who walk the path of Life, she is surpassed by none.”

“Right,” Zac slowly said, his heart full of reluctance.

“Are you worried about her condition?” Ubo laughed. “People have gone much further off the conventional path in search of power, both in the Orom World and outside. Her fusion is nothing special, and she is still firmly in control of her soul.”

“Alright, I’ll visit her,” Zac agreed.

“No hurry,” Ubo said as Zac got ready to leave. “Stay for a few days. I can sense you have worked too hard lately. You need to stop and unburden your mind. Incidentally, I wanted to test the efficacy of my latest restoration array on fleshy beings.”

Zac was a bit reluctant, but ultimately agreed to stay for a week inside Ubo’s mountain. The elemental was a terrific host, and the array it had Zac sit inside was almost as powerful as the one he used to heal when he first arrived. The only issue was how talkative Ubo was. There didn’t seem to be an end to the marvelous feats he’d accomplished, both before and after being caught by the Orom.

Zac even wondered if the elemental had him stay just so it had someone to brag to, with how he’d become a captive audience inside the array. But the array did work wonders, so he let his drained body get restored as he ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’-ed at the right places during Ubo’s retelling of his heroic exploits.

A week later, Zac emerged, relaxed and exhausted at the same time. The Arborist’s cultivation farm wasn’t too far from where he first encountered her, but it was quite some distance from Ubo’s mountain. Close to two weeks passed to reach her neck of the woods, and the Life-attuned forest gradually transitioned from the individualistic chaos to vast fields covered in top-quality farming arrays.

While Ubo’s cultivation cave was meticulously crafted, it completely lost to Heda’s domain in acreage. From the looks of it, each field only grew one type of plant, but there were small differences between them all. Perhaps Heda was letting the Dao of Life coerce mutations of various species in the hopes of discovering something useful.

It took him over two hours walking through the enormous fields until he finally spotted a small farmhouse. Heda was already waiting outside, smiling at him with the fleshy half of her face as Zac got closer.

“I have waited a long time,” Heda nodded as she looked at Zac. “I was about to go catch you.”

“No need for any catching,” Zac said. “I was caught up with my cultivation. My first relegation will take place in a few months.”

“You will survive,” Heda said without hesitation.

“I should be fine by now,” Zac agreed. “I am here for something else.”

“Oh?” Heda said curiously, and Zac shuddered inwardly as a few roots across her face pulsated.

“I heard from Ubo you are skilled with living weapons? Like vines?” Zac ventured.

“Of course,” Heda said, and Zac’s eyes widened in alarm as he saw a thick purple vine emerge from her neck before retreating into her body. “There are many cultivators who use plant-based lifeforms in battle, but most cultivate Nature. Do you want to implant yourself? I have a few promising experi—”

“No!” Zac hurriedly said as he took a step back. “Just something I can carry with me.”

“Oh,” Heda said, the disappointment evident on her face. “Well, come in.”

They entered her farmstead, which was surprisingly small. Heda was carrying out a huge number of experiments judging by the fields, so he would have expected laboratories or factories to process all those plants. But there was only a simple cottage surrounded by a beautiful garden.

“My laboratories are underground,” Heda explained, seemingly understanding what Zac was thinking as he looked around. “I’m sorry I cannot offer a tour. The saplings down there can be altered by the slightest change in aura, making the data unreliable.”

“Some other time, then,” Zac smiled.

Sitting down at an unadorned wooden table overlooking the garden outside, Zac explained his predicament. He also showed her [Chainbox] to give her a better notion of what kind of plant he was looking for.

“There are an endless number of plants like that,” Heda shrugged. “Show me your dance again.”

Zac eagerly got back on his feet and started swinging, using the Evolutionary Stance against an imagined foe.

“Lifeless, but better,” Heda nodded. “More boring than your old dance, but probably the right solution.”

“I’m shoring up my foundations before reintegrating Life into the equation,” Zac smiled.

Heda was obviously not cultivating technique like he or Pavina. The Arborist had rather been interested in his display of Life manifested as the Bodhi Tree, by the looks of it.

“I cannot think of any plant in my garden that perfectly suits your path,” Heda said after some thought. “Although, that is usually the case. Living Weapons are best nurtured from a seedling, doused in your Dao from birth to maturity. That way, it will be perfectly in tune with you.”

“Oh, I see,” Zac said with disappointment.

“But I have something that might work for now?” Heda said as a half-smile spread across her face.

“I cannot have anything growing inside me,” Zac resolutely said.

He refused to have a parasite in his body like Heda. He didn’t want to continuously fight for his soul like the Arborist, or like Ogras, for that matter. But there was also a practical reason for his resistance. Would a parasite plant even survive when he swapped into his Draugr race and flooded his body with Miasma?

“No, something else,” Heda said before flashing away.

Two minutes later, she returned with a metal tube. Attached to it was some sort of cling vine roughly half a meter tall. There were small thorns hidden amongst its heart-shaped leaves, and it had a purple flower at its crown. It appeared harmless enough, making Zac wonder if it was really a Living Weapon.

More importantly, it looked like it was dying. Its leaves were shriveled and more than half were brown instead of green, and its stem was wrinkly like it was dried out.

“This is Vivi,” Heda explained as she caressed one of the flowers. “She was one of my earliest experiments since being trapped in this world. She was both a great success and a great failure.”

“She seems a bit sick,” Zac said, confused.

“Not sick. Dying,” Heda sighed. “My skills were lacking at the time, and I was unable to overcome the limits of her origin. Thus, Vivi never managed to become a Plant Queen. Today, I would have managed to do it. But it is much too late, the window has passed. Now, she only has a century or two left to live. But she does enjoy eating corpses, so why don’t you take her out for some bloodshed in her final days?”

“Uhh…” Zac hesitated as he looked at the wilting vine.

“Before you say no, you should know that she is as powerful as a Late-stage High-quality E-grade Spirit Tool, even in this weakened state. If you feed her well and regularly infuse her with some Mental Energy, she can match Peak Tools for a while. She will not slow you down.”

A new sense of appreciation for the plant came over Zac. Even weakened, this diminutive thing was so powerful? Just how dangerous had it been at its prime? No wonder Heda called it a great success.

“How would it work?” Zac asked. “I don’t have any plant-based or pet-based skills.”

“Since you don’t want to swallow her core, you will have to imprint her,” Heda said. “Thankfully, she is just an E-grade plant, so her consciousness is hazy. And with her advanced age, she is quite docile. Buy [Link of Demeter] from the Contribution Store. If that slot is taken, you can also use [Nature’s bond] or [Herbal Harmonization]. They will work as well, but are Nature-aspected rather than Life-aspected.”

“How much would this plant cost?” Zac asked, knowing the Orom wouldn’t allow her to give it away.

“Between the spatial tube and Vivi herself,” Heda slowly said before she closed her eyes. “2,500 Purchase Points. That’s the lowest price I am allowed to set.”

Zac wasn’t too flush with Purchase Points, but 2,500 was a steal for a weapon at the equivalent of a Late E-Grade Spirit Tool. Heda was giving him a deep, deep discount here, even if you factored in the plant’s short, remaining lifespan.

“I’ll take her,” Zac said. “But what did you mean by spatial tube?”

“Vivi does not have spatial skills of her own, and her real body is over five hundred meters long,” Heda smiled as she stroked the leaves of the vine, prompting it to completely retreat into the tube. “Most of her body is hidden inside here. Her maximum reach with her vines is three kilometers, but they will gradually lose force after five hundred meters. Of course, don’t worry if they’re damaged. As long as you feed her Cosmic Energy, they’ll regrow very quickly.”

To showcase what she was talking about, she had two vines shoot out through the window, and they ripped through the air until Zac could barely see their ends. A moment later, they were retracted again, leaving turbulent winds in their wake. The vines had been as thick as ropes, and didn’t have any hint of decay or weakness.

Even Zac felt a bit pressured by the aura they exuded.

“Amazing,” Zac whispered, knowing a Living Weapon would fill the role of [Chainbox] without missing a step. If anything, Vivi was far superior.

“Do you know why I wanted to meet you?” Heda asked as she handed him the tube.

“Because of my usage of the Dao of Life?” Zac hesitated.

“No. That wasn’t very impressive,” Heda said, making Zac grimace with embarrassment. “I wanted you to come because you are rootless in this world. You do not belong, and I don’t believe you will be here in a decade or two.”

“That’s… Why do you say that?”

“It’s hard to explain. It’s a gift of my cohabitant,” Heda shrugged and took out a small glass container. “I have a request.”

“What’s that?”

“When you leave the Orom, please break this glass and throw it away.” Heda smiled.

Zac took the small glass container, where a shimmering seed was hidden inside.

“That’s it?” Zac asked. “Just, throw it anywhere, even the Void?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

Zac gave the seed a curious look, wondering if it was some escape measure of the Arborist. He considered the risks of doing as she asked, but he felt it wouldn’t be too risky to just throw it out before teleporting away. She had no reason to hurt him, and his reservations about her were mostly related to her grim appearance.

“I’ll do it, if I ever manage to leave this place,” Zac eventually agreed.

“Good enough,” Heda nodded.

With the help of the Arborist, Zac fashioned the tube into a back protector that ran along his spine. According to Heda, not even a Middle Hegemon would be able to break it with a full-powered swing. And if it broken, it simply meant the true body of Vivi would be released. If that happened, he would have to get a new spatial container that could nurture Life.

Even better, he could store the spatial tube in a Spatial Ring, so long as Vivi was completely retracted. The only caveat was that he had to take her out at least once a month to feed her Cosmic Energy and some corpses.

“When her time is up and she can fight no longer, plant her somewhere nice, please,” Heda said as Zac tried moving around with the pipe along his back. “I have placed a seal on her that will last a month. Imprint her before that.”

The tube fit perfectly, and he didn’t even notice it was there. It did look a bit odd, since the purple flower stuck out from the top of the tube, making it look like he was carrying a very thin vase rather than a sheath. He thanked Heda again before leaving, eager to get the taming method before the critter broke free and went on a rampage.

With this, the final roadblock to the Integration Stage and forming his last two Dao Branches had been dealt with, and Zac couldn’t wait to return to the Wilderness. He may have run into some speedbumps, but his goal was still the same.

Within a year and a half, he wanted to gain the power required to duel the Izh’Rak Reaver.

53

SHADEWAR

The swarm of elemental constructs was being whittled down as the ravenous army of cursed shadows pushed forward. Hidden among the glaciers, Ogras’ eyes shimmered as he looked for the leader of these wretched things. Finally, he spotted it—a patch of frigid Dao more condensed than its surroundings.

The world turned monochrome as he phased into the Grey World, and he crossed the chaotic battlefield, ignoring the shadow puppets around him. In the Grey World, his army looked different. Rather than the intangible forms that methodically decimated the ice beasts in the real world, they maintained their real forms here.

Wretched goblins whose eyes and mouths were covered with talismans emanating purple flames, their whole spectral bodies covered in runes.

‘Alas,’ a sorrowful sigh echoed out in his mind.

Ogras ignored it as usual. He had bigger fish to fry than dealing with some maudlin Warlock.

Besides, the sneaky bastard had no one to blame but himself. If not for K’Rav’s schemes, would Ogras have bothered gathering thousands of errant souls of his citizens, forcibly binding them to his new flag? Well, he probably would have, but he would have been more polite about it. After all, he needed someone to house and enslave the malignant Qriz’Ur entities.

Such was the climb to the peak. Eat or be eaten. The Warlock had tried possessing him at the critical moment of crafting the flag. He’d used misdirection, the brand on his arm, and the ancient arts of his civilization as bait to lure Ogras down a path of no return. Ogras, in turn, schemed against the Warlock since the moment he popped up unannounced.

Even then, he only survived by a hair.

Reaching the first stage of the [Spiritlock Physique] had not only given him a great boost to his Shadow Affinities and attributes, but it also gave him an inherited ability of the Ka’Zur Plainswalker that was once his familiar. The ability to split his consciousness and send off part of his mind on a journey through the shadows without anyone noticing.

He could even swap positions with this doppelganger at any time, making him even harder to kill. But Ogras had not once let the Goblin Warlock get a hint of this ability, even though he used it almost constantly since successfully cultivating Rasata’s Body Tempering Technique. With his doppelganger, he’d scoured the huge tower for helpful, hidden knowledge.

A lot of places were sealed, but the tower was extremely old. Some places had deteriorated to the point that a shadow could squeeze through a crack. Ogras had found whole repositories left behind by the masters of the fallen goblin empire, things K’Rav never wanted him to discover. It was thanks to two techniques in particular, that he managed to break through the goblin’s schemes.

First, it was a Soul Strengthening Method unlike anything Ogras had ever seen before called [Delirigoria]. Its benefits to the soul were almost nonexistent, but it was quick to train and provided one unique benefit. It turned one’s Soul Aperture into a virulent wasteland for any foreign entity, making your body and mind naturally resistant to attempts at possession.

The method was crafted by one of the councilors of the Ra’Lashar Kingdom because way too many of their citizens went mad from the Qriz’Ul twisting their minds. Unfortunately, the method was only finished by the end of the war, and Ogras’ research indicated that K’Rav had fallen even before the method was completed and announced.

The second method was a technique with the unfortunate name [Bagaboom]. While its name was dumb even for an insane goblin scientist, it proved to be exactly what Ogras needed. A single-use offensive sigil formed in one’s mind. It took Ogras a full year of constantly infusing Mental Energy into this hidden brand in his Soul Aperture, but it was a lifesaver when K’Rav finally made his move.

Thanks to these two defenses, K’Rav had the tables turned on him, forcing the goblin ghost to give up on his attempt of possession, even if his soul was far superior to Ogras’. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a perfect victory, and that old bastard managed to survive by turning himself into the Tool Spirit of his flag.

Preferably, Ogras wanted to erase that bastard to avoid any danger down the road, but the ghost had perfectly planned its contingency. If he killed K’Rav, the flag would turn into a fancy ornament. Reforming the flag was impossible. The two had spent over a year on its formation, and all those efforts were just the finishing touches upon an almost completed weapon. Even if Ogras had the skills to start over from scratch, it would probably take decades, centuries even, to create something like this.

It was a weapon invented for the war with the Qriz’Ul, and its birth required not only the fell Karma accumulated by the whole kingdom. It also required the unique arrays Ogras was forced to leave behind when the tower crumbled as a final act of revenge from K’Rav. Thus, the spectral goblin would keep growing stronger as new shades were crammed into the flag.

Even worse, the Warlock kept complaining in the back of his mind, a broken record railing against his unjust treatment, as though his attempt at possession was fair play. K’Rav’s soul was simply too powerful, and Ogras was unable to shut out his quibbling. Sometimes, Ogras wondered if the trade-off was worth it. The sounds of heated battle behind him immediately answered his question.

Of course it was.

K’Rav could complain all day as long as he provided the strength needed for Ogras to keep pushing onward. The [Shadewar Flag] was a terrifying treasure, way more powerful than his old Clan’s defining treasure, the [Spear of Ar’Amak]. And that was while the flag was still in its infant state.

The army of spectral goblins had proven extremely useful, no matter if it was for large-scale combat like now or forming War Arrays from within the safety of the flag itself. He’d also managed to kill a Beast King by overwhelming it with these almost unkillable little buggers, allowing him to land a killing blow without even being in danger.

Besides, the fact that K’Rav kept scheming had its benefits. That meant the game was still going and some pieces weren’t expended. It was a looming threat, but one that could bring unexpected benefits. When the tower collapsed, most of the knowledge of the Ra’Lashar was lost, except for the things Ogras managed to memorize and that which was locked in the Tool Spirit’s mind.

There was some core knowledge that hadn’t been written down or perhaps intentionally erased by K’Rav or some of the other leaders. For example, the brand that was still on his arm was supposed to bring him benefits, considering it was a reward from a quest of the Ruthless Heavens.

However, it had only become a weakness for the Warlock to exploit, almost costing Ogras his life. Even now, its benefits were out of his reach. Unfortunately, Ogras currently had no way to extract that intelligence from the ensconced Tool Spirit. But as long as the game kept going, an opportunity would eventually present itself.

For now, Ogras was content maintaining the status quo. He’d spent far more time in the ruins of the Ra’Lashar Kingdom than he planned. While the odds of anything as valuable appearing in the other corners of the Mystic Realm were low, Ogras still wanted to explore as much as possible before outsiders came pouring in.

The monochrome surroundings were infused with blue and white as Ogras left the Grey World just a few meters away from the concentrated spot of icy Dao, and a lance of darkness shot forward with monstrous momentum. The wall of ice surrounding the Ice Spirit was utterly destroyed, forcing it to flee through the glacier.

Most people would have a hard time keeping up, but Ogras wasn’t most people. The shadowlance speared the air, stabbing into the ancient ice and causing hairline cracks to spread deep into the mountain with almost instantaneous speed. The attack didn’t harm the spirit, but it created innumerable small mirrors through the ice.

A skill fractal flashed and the Dao rippled, and fake became real while real became fake.

A storm of shadows turned the frozen sheet into shreds around him as Ogras swapped places with one of his mirror images, appearing right in front of the Spirit. He could kill it then and there, but that wasn’t why he made the detour. Two crude talismans flew out, and Ogras rapidly started performing seals with his hands.

The Spirit desperately struggled against the talisman, and Ogras was instantly covered in a layer of frost. However, he persevered. Eventually, a shimmering shard of ice hovered in the air, two talismans tightly wrapped around it. Ogras smiled with glee, his first true spirit capture a success.

This technique was part of the [Spiritlock Physique], an improved version of the method most of the goblins had used to capture spirits. Mastering this method was integral if he wanted to proceed to the next stage of his physique, since the smallest error in the seal would mean death or madness when sealing more spirits in his body down the road.

‘Any young acolyte back home would be able to catch a little Ice Spirit who had yet formed a true consciousness,’ K’Rav snorted in his mind.

“Yet I am standing here today, while they all became devilfood.” Ogras grinned. “Perhaps your acolytes should have studied moderation instead of capturing spirits.”

‘Greatness always comes at a risk and a cost,’ the Warlock snickered in response. ‘I know of the one whose shadow you’re chasing. I saw him the short moment we shared a mind. You’ll have to work harder than this if you want to achieve your goals.’

“No need for a wretched Tool Spirit to worry about my matters,” Ogas snorted as he stowed away the sealed spirit.

He didn’t have any plans of integrating this thing into his body. First of all, what K’Rav said was true. This spirit wasn’t some supreme creature, and Ogras needed top-quality spirits to get the most out of his physique. It would be easier to integrate low-quality spirits, but Rasata had posited that would lead to a weak foundation, where you would get stuck long before reaching the peak of the method.

True to the goblin kingdom’s core mentality, the [Spiritlock Technique] could offer greatness so long as you were willing to take the risk. The deadlier the abominations you gobbled up, the greater the effect.

Besides, with his unique race, he had no choice but to exclusively look for shadow-based creatures to infuse. Unfortunately, those things were both extremely rare and hard to spot, creeping within the seams of reality. Perhaps that bastard who called himself the Umbra had more creatures in stock, provided Ogras ever got out of this place and managed to return to Earth.

He had ultimately caught this little spirit because it was very rare, and rare meant valuable.

Ogras took a step forward, melding with a mirror image of himself. Something as marvelous as this didn’t even require the activation of a skill thanks to fusing the Peak Fragment of Mirage with his Doppelganger ability, and he soon stood atop the glacier once more. Having lost their source of power and spirituality, the ice creatures turned into unmoving statues, leaving the shades without an enemy to unleash their frustration and rage upon.

A grin spread across Ogras’ mouth as he snickered, the sound amplified by the towering cliffs around him. He swung his flag, returning his unwilling followers into the cursed maelstrom inside. From there, he flashed a few times, rushing through the frozen world with amazing speed.

The days blended together in this lifeless vista, but Ogras kept going deeper, his eyes constantly scanning the horizon. Suddenly, he stopped, his eyes wide with excitement. The notes were true!

In the distance, he finally saw what he sought. A mysterious glimmer, this one different from the constant and almost blinding radiance of sun-blasted ice. A moment later, the glimmer was gone, and Ogras found himself trapped in a bubble of light. Explosions erupted in every direction as ice was melted or ripped apart.

But Ogras wasn’t worried. He was elated. The notes said this would happen.

He was trapped and would have to survive the attack. Despite being aware of this, he still tried to get out of the fifty-meter-wide trap. A barrier barred his escape, and his body became covered in wounds from the piercing lights as he failed to enter the Grey World. He was forced to weave back and forth, avoiding the blue streaks hidden among the other lights as he took out a crystal and a parchment.

The information crystal exploded, and Ogras grimaced as he started scribbling down his findings. His memories were already fading. His preparations proved completely ineffectual, but he staunchly held onto the scene of that glimmer as he frantically wrote while narrowly avoiding death.

He’d lost the trail twice already. Hopefully, he’d be able to leave behind some additional information this time. A minute later, Ogras looked around with confusion before his eyes turned to the parchment in his hand. A troubled frown marred his face.

It happened again.

A few minutes were lost, and he was surrounded by destruction. Ogras pushed down his misgivings as he ate a healing pill before heading in the direction the notes indicated. A snicker echoed in his mind, which Ogras ignored. He knew what K’Rav was getting at.

Perhaps, he really had gone mad during his visit to the goblin tower or from practicing taboo methods. Why else would he be following notes he left himself while in a state of delirium? Ogras had no idea what the hell he was talking about in his writings. Natural phenomena and illusory glimmers in the sky… But he’d already decided to follow the clues.

If the notes could be trusted, it might be a unique treasure hidden in this glacier that would help him perfect his path. If the notes were false, what did it matter? It would mean he’d gone crazy in this place, so he might as well follow the clues until he lost the last vestiges of his sanity.

Ogras kept going deeper into the endless world of ice, his thoughts occupied by the Dao. Reality and illusion become one, truths and falsehoods interwoven into an indecipherable patchwork. Being everywhere and nowhere, a surveyor from the shadows who controlled life, death, and fate itself.

The Path of the Illusory Shade.

* * *

“Little Chain defeated Olgoroth two weeks ago, I should have guessed you would arrive sooner or later,” Traprandar said with a small smile as he played with a golden hoop that never left his hand.

“That’s unrelated.” Zac shrugged, though his brows furrowed like he was annoyed.

Annoyed that the masked undead warrior managed to defeat a Bronze Attendant before him.

“Is it now?” Traprandar pointedly smiled at the four vines that wound themselves around Zac’s arms and midriff in a hug.

Zac had made some waves in the coliseum twenty months ago when he appeared with the spatial tube on his back, suddenly wielding four powerful vines in combat. Luckily, [Link of Demeter] used up a free spot in his pathways on the right side of his back, which allowed him to easily form a connection with Vivi.

He hadn’t been met with any resistance at all, only a vague sense of hunger and excitement that only increased after he killed the first beast in the Wilderness. Buying the skill had completely emptied his last savings though. He even had to push his levels to 140 just to afford it and get the loose change needed to use the teleporters.

Thankfully, his intermittent sessions of Soul Strengthening provided impressive amounts of Contribution Points, and making a few breakthroughs with his skills helped as well. In the end, he passed the three-year evaluation with over 40,000 Contribution Points, and just enough points to enact his plan in the arena.

It was a far cry from the record-holder’s 118,000 points, but still well beyond the norm for his grade. Besides, Zac would easily have passed 50,000 if he hadn’t focused most of his time on reforming his two stances. However, not everyone was so lucky as to effortlessly pass the first relegation.

Travo Raso, the Temple Fixer and Zac’s first friend in this prison, was one of those who didn’t make it.

54

RAISING THE STAKES

The three-year shuffle for new arrivals was quite straightforward. It worked just like the normal relegations, where Zac’s prison brand flashed a month before the deadline. In his case, it emitted a soothing blue glimmer, indicating he was above the cut-off. The less fortunate ones would instead be shown a glaring red, providing them with one final warning and opportunity.

The early warning was designed to squeeze out a burst of inspiration through desperation, and a sense of unease among those who were just scraping by. No one was allowed to relax. Only those such as Zac himself who performed far beyond the average could ignore the pressure, though even Zac with his massive pool of Contribution Points had felt a bit unnerved.

He couldn’t even imagine what was going through the minds of those who were barely hanging on.

When the relegation finally arrived, their prison brands flashed again, unsurprisingly the same color in Zac’s case. However, a moment later, Zac felt vibrations from his Cosmos Sack. Twelve of Zac’s collected tokens had suddenly been marked by a rune that looked like a broken ladder. The token belonging to Travo Raso, the Radiant Temple fixer, had been one of them.

Even to this day, the brands were visible on the tokens, their owners’ failures acting as a warning to others. If the tokens cracked, it meant their owners had died in the hellish environment of the second-string cultivators.

Three had already cracked in the year since the relegation.

It was a stark reminder that this was not some cultivation haven, but a heartless cage. It made Zac even more desperate to get his hands on the Remnants and leave this depressing place. This oversized fish was playing with people’s lives and using them as Dao Batteries. If Zac could, he would rip open the false sky above his head, drowning it with the Dao of Chaos.

But before he could do that, some steps had to be completed. First of all, he needed to perfect his two stances. Four months ago, Zac finally reached Peak proficiency of his two mastery skills. The skills hadn’t provided any visions this time around, but rather taken his techniques even closer to the Dao, showing the way in a sense.

After another two months of work, he finished incorporating the lessons into the Inexorable Stance. The process was quite smooth, considering he was inching toward the very same concepts and theories he used to form the two stances. In a sense, he was returning to the origin, this time armed with a wealth of experience and a rebuilt foundation.

During a ferocious battle in the deeper parts of the fourth band, he managed to take that final step, reintegrating the Daos of Coffin and War Axe into his Inexorable Stance. Reaching this point was both faster and slower than he expected considering his initial burst of rapid progress. Slower in the sense that his two-year deadline had already passed by three months. Faster in the sense he’d worked on both his stances, not just the one.

His Evolutionary Stance was still lacking something though, and even after two months of grinding, he hadn’t managed to enter the Integration Stage. He’d infused the Daos over and over, the concepts of a technique as ever-changing as life itself. Of overcoming fate and breaking through all shackles.

But every time, the result felt off, like he hadn’t completely grasped the essence.

The first step of the Integration Stage was the most important. It was the first building block of something greater. If he got it wrong, he would find himself in a similar situation in the future, where he would have to tear down his stance and rebuild it. But considering his Daos and technique were so interconnected, that would probably mean his future Life-attuned Dao Branch would become crooked as well.

That was a problem far more difficult to allay, and something that could cause a tremendous headache when forming one’s Cultivator’s Core or Inner World.

Still, Zac was right on the cusp of breaking through the thin film holding him back. He’d decided to alter his plans a bit, aiming for a breakthrough in the arena when pitted against a skillful enemy. After all, pitched battle was how a good half of his epiphanies were born, and it matched the fate-breaking aspect of his stance.

If he could make some Purchase Points at the same time, all the better.

Luckily, Zac had spent years on this particular money-making scheme. Zac’s two personas were already the source of a lot of rumors and comparisons, considering they were both E-grade and wielded axes. With Zac’s human side suddenly copying the chains by adding Vivi to his repertoire, speculation had veritably exploded.

Unsurprisingly, there was a good chunk of people convinced Zac and ‘Mr. Chains’ were the same person, though Zac hadn’t heard anyone use the term Edgewalker. They figured he was some sort of twinned being born through circumstance. For example, where the human side survived while his undead persona awakened. It sounded pretty unbelievable, but Zac had to admit the truth was even more far-fetched.

Another camp consisted of the people who believed the two youngsters were connected since before the Orom, and these were the rumors Zac tried to encourage. Thanks to some ‘accidentally leaked’ snippets of information from Zac, his two identities were essentially rivals since birth through a grudge inherited from their masters.

Both walked similar paths, eager to prove their superiority.

Traprandar happened to be one of the people who leaned toward this theory, and this was part of Zac’s calculations when targeting the man. First, he’d played out a scenario where Mr. Chains was slowly pulling ahead thanks to coming under the tutelage of Pavina, the Worldlock Monarch.

Zac’s human side had displayed a series of desperate battles in the arena where he struggled to keep up, but had been slowly left in the dust over the past two years. In reality, this was a mix of Zac holding back his strength and the simple fact that the Evolutionary Stance had somewhat lagged behind.

Next, Zac targeted Olgoroth. He was an overbearing Corpselord who had a similar combat style as the Evolutionary Stance, though his technique obviously wasn’t based on Life. It did however contain the elements of ferociously breaking the shackles of fate. In Olgoroth’s case, his low birthright and pushing forward, constantly changing and improving.

This served three purposes. First, the Corpselord was a perfect opponent to hone his path and shore up his foundation after reaching the Integration Stage with the Inexorable Stance. Zac’s path was based on inevitability and restraints, so fighting someone like Olgoroth was far more valuable than fighting almost any other type of warrior.

Secondly, Olgoroth and Traprandar hated each other, and Traprandar had defeated Olgoroth three times in a row over the past twenty years. It made the Corpselord irritable and easy to instigate into betting big against Mr. Chains, who walked a similar path of restrictions as Traprandar. At the same time, it shouldn’t make Traprandar too worried even if he started suspecting that Zac and Mr. Chains were one and the same.

Finally, together with the backgrounds Zac had crafted for his two identities, it also set the stage for entrapping Traprandar for one final payout. As long as Zac could play the part of someone who was in over his head and refused to give in to his nemesis who was getting ahead.

“Healthy competition is good in this place, but your actions are bordering obsession. Don’t get lost in someone else’s path,” Trapandar snickered as he looked at the vines on Zac’s body. “Little Chains’ path is more suited for such a tool, and his skill in using them is ahead of yours.”

“Will you accept or not?” Zac said, his face darkening.

“I might,” the Traprandar smiled. “But you should understand my predicament. If I win, it’s a matter of course. I’m a late Hegemon and Bronze Attendant. Beating up a brat is more embarrassing than impressive. If I happen to lose, my reputation is ruined like a certain Corpselord’s.”

As Traprandar said the final sentence, he glanced in the direction of the stands with a taunting smile, where an absolutely infuriated Olgoroth glared back.

“It’s easy to talk big, bastard!” Olgoroth roared. “You’re just afraid you’ll lose to the weaker of the two, proving I am superior.”

Zac was flush with excitement at the exchange, especially when Traprandar’s expression shifted. Clearly, Traprandar was interested, but he was trying to raise the stakes.

It was just what Zac had been praying for, but he maintained an annoyed demeanor as he waved his token. “That guy bet 10,000 Purchase Points. I’ll bet 18,308 points. When I defeat you, I’ll have defeated that bastard by proxy as well.”

“Look who’s come up in the world. I remember when you only gave up 50 points in the beginning,” Trapandar smiled, but Zac could feel the hesitation in his eyes.

Had Zac messed up, being too greedy with such a large bet?

The small bets Traprandar mentioned came from Zac’s first year in the Orom World, before Pavina had righted the ship, so to speak. Zac had lost fifty-eight consecutive fights between eight visits to the arena back then, earning him the nickname, Pocket Money, since he always bet a handful of Purchase Points to get someone to spar with him.

But that eventually changed with him winning some duels in both his forms, though his human form was still not at the level where he should have the guts to challenge Traprandar.

Zac knew that this was a critical moment, where Traprandar might smell something amiss. 18,000 Purchase Points wasn’t anything to scoff at, even for a Late Hegemon. The fact that Zac could put out such a sum might seem suspicious, even if it had been four years since he arrived.

“I guess I can teach you a trick or two for such a generous fee,” Traprandar eventually said, having chosen greed over precaution.

Zac had caught the fish, now he just needed to reel it in. He jumped down to the empty arena with a scowl and pressed his token against the Arena Array, depositing the 18,308 Purchase Points. A flash of hesitation and regret appeared on his face, but he smoothed over the expression as though it was a mistake. In reality, Zac had practiced it for weeks since duplicity didn’t come as naturally to him as for certain demons.

Still, part of the worry was real. The specific number 18,308, was meant to indicate it was Zac’s total, and it wasn’t that far from the truth. He had just over 21,000 points after betting 10,000 Purchase Points against Olgoroth a few weeks back, a bet he only managed to put forward thanks to reaching the Integration Stage and saving for twenty months.

His plan hinged on Traprandar believing Zac’s actions were bluster from an inexperienced E-grade youth caught in a pissing contest with his rival. Years of small investments, all for one big payout. If he succeeded, he would suddenly have over 40,000 Purchase Points, allowing him to afford one of the top-tier treasures that had been out of his reach since arriving in this place.

Traprandar jumped down from the waiting area and pressed his bronze token against the array as well, prompting the stands to explode with excitement. 18,000 Purchase Points was not too much for some of the spectators, but it was still an uncommonly large bet. Besides, they carried a unique implication since an E-grade cultivator had put forth the bet.

It should be Zac’s entire savings, the resources meant to generate the Contribution Points needed to survive. Lose them, and he might have sentenced himself to death. For Traprandar, his reputation was at stake, something that was even more important than life and death for some.

Losing against an E-grade warrior who arrived just a few years ago as a Bronze Attendant? A warrior who wasn’t even the strongest in his cohort? It would be too embarrassing.

With Traprandar having infused the points, there was no turning back for either of them, and Zac immediately discarded his fake demeanor. He jumped up on the arena with a calm expression as a copy of [Verun’s Bite] appeared in his hand, an axe Zac commissioned when starting to work on his Evolutionary Stance in earnest.

Traprandar instantly noticed Zac’s change and a flash of coldness appeared in his eyes. Zac wasn’t bothered; it was intentional. He wasn’t planning on using trickery in this fight. It needed to be a head-on melee where both fought with everything they had. That was how he would seize the opportunity for a breakthrough.

“So, it was a ruse, after all,” Traprandar slowly said as his aura rose. “How? You and Little Chains worked together? Or are you really one? Is it truly possible?”

“Does it matter?” Zac said with a small smile as his own aura condensed beyond what he’d ever displayed before. “Give it your all.”

“Hmph,” the man snorted as a second golden ring appeared in his other hand, the other half of his twinned weapon.

The arena’s barrier activated and enclosed them, and both sprung to action at the same time. Zac utilized [Earthstrider] to close the distance. But Traprandar chose to backpedal as one shining light after another emerged from his body, and the whole arena was drenched in a golden sheen as they rose toward the ceiling.

Traprandar wasn’t a Pure Life cultivator, rather focusing on a mixed-meaning Dao based on Stars and Life, possibly with a hint of fire mixed within. He didn’t have any skills in numerology like the cultivators of the Radiant Temple as far as Zac could tell, but there was some sort of light-based concepts hidden in the Dao of Stars.

Zac didn’t unleash his own domain to match the one his enemy was erecting, afraid it would be destroyed before he could make full use of it. Thankfully, the arena was only so big, and Zac eventually caught up to the warrior who couldn’t use movement skills while releasing his domain.

Even then, Traprandar had already managed to unleash over two dozen lights, and they formed an array that put Zac’s body under great strain, while also containing a slightly hallucinogenic effect. The latter was thankfully mostly nullified through his powerful soul. Zac catching up meant no more stars could be released, stopping the domain from gaining any more power.

Even before Zac had the chance to unleash an attack of his own, the warrior disappeared in a blinding flash of light that made Zac’s eyes burn. A pang of danger warned him even before he could regain his vision, though he’d already dug one of Vivi’s vines into the ground earlier, allowing him to instantly drag himself out of harm’s way.

Using a Living Weapon was surprisingly easy, it turned out. The vine gave Zac full control over her ‘limbs’ as his consciousness spread into hers, allowing him to use the vines just like he would the chains of [Chainbox].

The air screamed as the bladed ring ripped space asunder, narrowly passing Zac by, and leaving a wall of searing light in its wake. It would stay up for the duration of the fight, a part of Traprandar’s restrictive heritage. Zac tried to hit the spinning ring with a quick jab of his axe, but the weapon disappeared in a flash of light before he could connect, instantly returned to its owner.

Zac barely had time to adjust before a rain of golden drops shot his way. The four vines he used rapidly expanded and grew into a Bodhi-infused wall that blocked the attacks, but they were riddled with holes in an instant before falling apart. Zac didn’t care since they had served their purpose, and emerged at their side to unleash a series of bladed leaves with [Nature’s Edge].

Even if the vines were cut off a hundred times over, Vivi would just heal or grow new ones in an instant without even feeling a pinch.

It was one of the differences between chains and vines that had taken some getting used to, where the vines were—to some extent—used as discardable weapons. It allowed for some all-out attacks unheeding of taking damage yourself, which suited the offensive style of Zac’s Evolutionary Stance. The downside was that the vines weren’t as sturdy as the chains, making some maneuvers impossible.

A blinding flash of light forced Zac to close his eyes, but his powerful soul allowed him to know what was going on. Traprandar had appeared right in front of him as Zac focused on the bladed leaves flying toward the other side of the cage, one of the bladed rings already falling toward his neck.

The arena shuddered as axe and wheel met each other in the first true clash of the battle.

“You planned and schemed, but it won’t matter. I will take those points of yours,” Traprandar grinned as he unleashed a rapid series of swings that seemed to come from everywhere, suffocating Zac.

Meanwhile, Zac felt the light around him congeal, and he was surprised to find the air itself slowly turning into some sort of crystalline prison without a single ripple of energy as a clue. This wasn’t a skill Zac had seen Traprandar use before, and moving was getting harder and harder.

Zac wasn’t worried though—he was elated. The more restraints Traprandar had that Zac could break, the better. The moment he managed to break all the shackles Traprandar could erect, his Evolutionary Stance would take that next step.

55

TRANSITION

Space was rapidly freezing over, and Trapandar furiously swung his ring blades to keep Zac in place. The warrior was using his signature skill already. Every time the two clashed, a band of light was added to Zac’s body, hampering his movements. The chakram seemed simple at the surface, but in Traprandar’s hand, they formed a never-ending dance that reminded Zac of the sun and the moon.

However, while Traprandar was continuously swinging them, it felt like Zac was the one being moved.

Zac was a small planet stuck in the orbit of the Hegemon’s sun, unable to break free of its pull. Together with the weird crystallization of Zac’s surroundings, he knew something needed to change. He could imagine all-too-well what would happen if he got trapped inside a crystal when fighting a warrior who used light as a weapon.

Zac roared as his aura surged, and the skill fractal on his hand was flooded with Cosmic Energy. The next moment, the whole arena was drowned in a tempest of emerald leaves, and the crystalline cage broke apart before it had a chance to fully form. Zac had become the eye of the storm, and nothing could contain him as he activated the upgraded version of [Nature’s Edge].

Reaching Late mastery added a unique feature, just like when [Chop] reached Peak mastery. This time, it didn’t add a persistent controllable blade. It instead allowed Zac to unleash a torrent of destruction, hundreds of leaves in every direction. Activated in the heart of an army would cause untold bloodshed, but it could also be used to break out of a siege, like now.

Crackling echoed as Zac forcibly broke the shimmering restraints that had been left on his body. Meanwhile, the ring-wielding warrior was forced to back away from the onslaught of razor-sharp leaves. Still, he effortlessly avoided the avalanche of attacks, parrying the few which couldn’t be dodged. But suddenly, through the storm, a vine hidden among the leaves flashed with extreme speed and seized Traprandar’s ankle.

The Hegemon swore as one of the bladed wheels slammed down to cut it off, but another barbed vine shot straight for his jugular at the same time. Traprandar’s weapons could cut apart the vines in a swing or two, and he would quickly be able to get free. But the barbs were sharp enough to leave lethal wounds if left unattended, forcing Traprandar to target the one going in for the kill.

Thankfully, that small delay was all Zac needed.

He’d broken or whittled down all the restraints, allowing him to catch up to his vines and Traprandar both. His axe drew a majestic upward arc, slamming the second chakram out of the way before Traprandar could use it to free himself. The Hegemon was too powerful to be restrained by a vine attached to his leg, but it allowed Zac to stop his teleportation ability by invading him with his Dao.

Traprandar understood this conundrum perfectly well, and his efforts were targeted to remove this vine. The struggle over latched-on vine became a central aspect of the battle, while the two tried to find openings to land blows. Traprandar used his restrictive abilities, while Zac relied on technique and his vines, where Vivi’s appendages were constantly forcing Traprandar to focus his attention elsewhere.

The techniques were similar to how Zac used the chains in his Inexorable Stance, but there was a difference in flavor. The chains restricted the enemy’s options and movements by threatening damage, but less than 10% of their moves actually clashed with the enemies. Instead, the chains constantly moved around them, putting the warriors under constant pressure.

The moment the enemy slipped up, the links would pounce, leaving festering wounds behind or sealing them long enough for Zac to go in for the kill.

The way Zac used Vivi’s vines was more ferocious. The vines were constantly assaulting Traprandar. It wasn’t a threat of damage if the enemy didn’t take a step back or restrain themselves. Zac was doing everything in his power to make sure clashes took place. If the enemy backed away, the vines pursued. If the enemy countered, Zac aimed for maximum engagement to break open their defenses and whittle them down. To make this possible, new vines were constantly growing out of the tube on his back to replace the ones Traprandar ripped apart.

However, Traprandar was a Late Hegemon who’d survived innumerable struggles. He wasn’t phased in the least by Zac’s never-ending offensive, and he slowly eked out enough of an advantage to let him activate a skill that conjured seven mirrors in the sky. Zac had seen this skill before, and would have to watch out for deadly beams of light shooting out from those mobile turrets.

The stars above, the floating mirrors, the chakrams that performed their stellar transformations, and Traprandar’s ability to constrain and whittle down. It formed a nigh-perfect cage, but Zac’s goal had always been to force Traprandar to take the match seriously rather than to end things quickly. This was an opportunity that the creatures in the Wilderness couldn’t provide.

Zac pushed his technique to the limit as he strove to keep the warrior in a pitched melee. The swirling storm of leaves were still filling the arena, providing a layer of protection in addition to being sharp enough to cut through steel. They flickered about in a seemingly random pattern, but Zac knew their movements weren’t random.

They were instilled with the Fragment of Bodhi, and they created ever-changing formations based on his Evolutionary Stance that both targeted the mirrors, while also blocking the blasts they released. The scene was reminiscent of [Nature’s Protection], the defensive skill that had gone into the fusion of [Nature’s Edge].

Zac hadn’t expected the skill to gain this ability at Late mastery since he essentially sacrificed the defensive skill in order to upgrade the otherwise un-upgradeable [Chop]. But it was definitely a welcome addition, where it shored up the weak defenses of the class. Together with the added sturdiness stemming from [Adamance of Eoz], the leaves were extremely hard to damage, let alone destroy.

Besides, the skill had only reached Late mastery so far. Zac couldn’t wait to see what the System would add when he managed to evolve the skill to the peak. As long as [Empyrean Aegis] was as impressive as it sounded, the defenses on his human side might even match that of his Draugr form.

Traprandar, in turn, constantly tried to push Zac off-balance by showing new tricks and changing up the tempo. The Bronze Attendant hadn’t taken his techniques to the Integration Stage, but that didn’t mean he was at a disadvantage in direct conflict. He still had millennia of experience and higher-stage Daos compared to Zac.

Besides, his abilities were easier to use while in a pitched battle. The air sizzled as Zac narrowly dodged another beam that ripped through the air, leaving a depression in space where his left leg was just a moment ago. Even with their impressive durability, the leaves were slowly being whittled down.

Zac guessed the mirrors were a continuously running skill like his [Deathmark], while the storm of leaves was a single-summon-ability that Zac was unable to replenish. The cooldown was quite short before he could resummon another storm, but he would still be exposed to attacks for an extended duration if nothing changed.

A deep thud like the knell of a bronze bell echoed through the arena as Zac furiously punched one of the bladed rings with his free hand, pushing it and its wielder back. He felt the weight of the restrictive band tightening around him but ignored it. A burning gash opened from another blast as he unleashed a series of swings so quick his arm turned to a blur.

Almost twenty blades shot out in quick succession before Zac once more lunged at Traprandar. Except, the moment Zac was about to reach him, the Hegemon exploded, throwing Zac dozens of meters away. Some minor burns covered his face and body, and a wave of blinding light passed straight through his body to enter his mind.

A soul attack.

Luckily, Traprandar had severely underestimated his mental defenses, which would stand on its own even against an elite Mentalist by now. Zac still knew he was in a precarious situation, and furiously swung his axe in an upward arc, cutting a beam of light apart before intercepting a downward swing of a bladed ring.

Zac was thrown back into the ground with a groan. His vines had already repositioned themselves, lifting him back to his feet as he desperately fought to regain his momentum. Unfortunately, a small error could have devastating consequences, and Traprandar had completely seized the advantage of his surprise skill. Thankfully, his gambit had destroyed most of the mirrors in the sky, drastically lessening the pressure from above.

Even with five of Traprandar’s mirrors being destroyed, Zac found himself at a hopeless disadvantage. He tried everything he’d learned over the past years, unleashing one ruthless and unpredictable swing after another while the vines kept an unrelenting tempo. But Traprandar was like an iron tower who refused to give up his control of the momentum.

It felt like the Hegemon was everywhere at once. Two wheels he used were in his hands one second, only to suddenly soar through the arena, taking unpredictable turns before striking at Zac out of nowhere. The starlight shone from above, and Zac saw that small crystals had started to grow across the floor. Sooner or later, they would become a problem as they started to refract light.

Even then, Zac didn’t activate [Arcadian Crusade], even if it would give him the power to recapture the pace. He fought on, taking three hits for every strike he managed to land on Traprandar. Unfortunately, the Hegemon’s defensive abilities didn’t only rely on his restrictive fighting style, he also had the ability to form circular runes of light with a mere thought.

They weren’t too durable, but every time Zac hit one, it released a blinding flash and a shockwave that pushed back his weapon. By the time Zac gathered his strength again, Traprandar had already moved out of harm’s way. One minute after another passed, and Zac was turning into a gory mess. He had a decent chunk of Cosmic Energy remaining at least, but that was mostly because he didn’t get many opportunities to use it.

Traprandar was only sporting a few shallow wounds, and he was still in prime fighting condition by the looks of it. He’d used up a lot of Cosmic Energy to maintain this advantage though. His overbearing fighting style was effective, but it relied on multiple skills to work. Tiring him out wasn’t an option though.

That wasn’t Zac’s goal with this fight. While Traprandar was restricted down to the same attribute pool when fighting with a normal citizen, he still had a Cultivator’s Core. He probably had ten times the amount of Cosmic Energy as Zac even in his downgraded state. But Zac still fought on without an inkling to surrender. He could feel how he was getting closer, how the answers hid here in the midst of desperate struggle.

Unknowingly, Zac’s perception started to change as he ferociously threw himself against Traprandar’s techniques to break out from the siege. Each bleeding gash was a lesson, each blistering welt a burst of inspiration. His swings no longer adhered to a fluid and ever-changing technique aimed at unrelenting offense. They gradually morphed into strikes from a Primordial Beast that fought for supremacy.

Every swing was a life, a death, and a reincarnation.

An endless cycle of rebirth Zac pushed forward. There was no such thing as defeat, there was only an endless series of new beginnings. His vines were no longer a supportive Armament aimed at forcing openings and pressure through constant harassment. They were his pack, nibbling at the flanks of their enemy. If they survived, they would feast. If they lost, they would die. Such was the law of the jungle. Such was the law of the Heavens.

The golden bands restraining his body shattered quicker and quicker, and the intricate cage of lines left in the wake of the flying chakrams were destroyed faster than they were created. How could light possibly hamper the endless pursuit of evolution, when the nurturing rays of the sun were part of life? It was bound to be taken, extracted, and used for his own gain as Zac reinvented himself.

The beams of destruction descending from the sky no longer seemed threatening. Such was life. Heavenly calamities came and went, and what emerged from the ashes would be stronger than what came before. Even those who fell would only be momentarily gone. Through the cycle of evolution, they would be reborn to fight again.

Forever.

Zac’s aura soared as an intangible ripple spread out from his body, a ripple denoting that Man and Dao had become one.

“You too? It’s not possible!” Traprandar roared as he redoubled his efforts, worry evident in his eyes.

Cracks appeared across the Hegemon’s skin, allowing a golden sheen to escape through his body. His aura surged, most likely from having activated some sort of berserking skill. A new set of mirrors appeared in the sky, these ones covered in golden sigils that thrummed with power. However, they didn’t point toward Zac, but rather each other as they formed a circle.

Zac woke up from his magical state, and a rush of elation filled him. He’d done it. This time, there was no sense of imperfection as he returned his Evolutionary Stance to its original glory—a far superior version compared to the old. However, now was not the time to inspect his gains.

Traprandar was going all out to protect his reputation and his points.

A set of white and golden fractals covered Zac’s skin as he activated [Arcadian Crusade], almost mirroring the shining cracks now marring Traprandar’s face. A ferocious momentum built up inside him, and his mind was awash with bloodlust. But Zac wouldn’t start flailing his weapons like a madman just from the mental manipulations of a berserking skill any longer.

He had integrated the Dao itself into his Evolutionary Stance, which wasn’t just something akin to learning a new skill. It was understanding of the Heavenly Truths and letting them permeate the core of his very being. Skills like [Arcadian Crusade] reduced the weak-willed into berserking madmen who only followed their instincts to fight, but those instincts had already been elevated into pure technique in Zac’s case.

With an unprecedented surge of momentum, Zac pounced like a pack of wolves closing in on its prey. Traprandar was trying to fight back best as he could, but his berserking skill proved utterly insufficient. His defenses crumbled and his restraints broke, finding himself submerged in the sea of Zac’s violence. A series of wounds to match Zac’s own covered his body in an instant.

Yet Traprandar didn’t give in, clearly preparing something since the energy in his body had been churning like crazy for a while. The light in the sky was growing stronger, as though a sun was being born in the center of the mirrors. Suddenly, reality inverted as the space between the mirrors became the mirror, while the mirrors became anchoring runes.

From the other side of the crystal pane, a terrifying entity gazed down upon Zac. It looked like an eye surrounded by a churning swirl of mysterious runes and golden hoops, almost reminiscent of a biblical seraph as comprehended by the mortal gaze. Although Zac had just turned the tide, he was still beset by a sense of primal dread gazing up at that creature.

There was no path but forward, and Zac continued to suppress Traprandar even as he felt something terrifying brewing above. Traprandar was trying to delay and entrap him, but he was finally forced to teleport away with a nasty wound that ran all the way from his shoulder down to his gut. If it had been just an inch deeper, the arrays of the arena would have kicked in and ended the match.

Still, managing to push the Hegemon into an unmitigated retreat was exactly what Zac needed. Eight thick streams of Mental Energy twinned into a sturdy rope before he infused them with four streams of Bodhi and four streams of Coffin. The summoned entity was already emerging from the mirror, but two celestial domains rose to meet its descent.

Zac initially hadn’t wanted to use [Rapturous Divide] in the arena, fearing it would fan the rumor mill seeing a fusion of Life and Death like that. But the thing in the sky put him under too much pressure, and he saw no alternative but to go all out. There was [Arcadia’s Judgment] as well, but he wouldn’t be able to launch it in time without using Void Energy to fuel the skill, which wasn’t something he could display in an arena battle like this.

The hymns of Arcadia clashed with the deafening silence of the Abyss. The unpassable chasm between the two formed just in time. Five massive halos had appeared behind the summoned creature, and they condensed into a terrifying beam aimed straight at Zac. The two forces clashed, and even the barriers that sealed the arena shuddered from the intensity of the attacks as Zac was pushed to his knees.

Space cried and twisted under the weight of two forces trying to consume each other, and Zac got a sinking feeling, immediately making his preparations. The creature was too powerful. Even with [Adamance of Eoz] and his robust infusion of a Dao Braid, the temple of Arcadia was fast crumbling under the pressure. The Abyssal chasm wasn’t much better off, and it looked like it was collapsing unto itself.

The stalemate lasted for another two seconds, but Zac suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood as his attack failed, while the terrifying being still hovered in the sky. Its eye had lost its glimmer, seemingly unable to unleash another scorching ray like the one that took out his attack. But it still had over half of its golden hoops intact, and they were now falling toward Zac like a Heavenly Judgment.

However, they didn’t get too far before space cracked again as a runic wooden hand emerged, holding an axe that exuded unquestionable might. The creature had already exerted all of its power, and it was effortlessly split in two before the axe continued its descent.

Meanwhile, a shocked Traprandar had collapsed on the other side of the arena while waiting for his ultimate attack to finish Zac off.

Zac was drenched in blood, his mind a bit woozy. But still he smiled, even though the golden hoops filled with deadly power were falling much faster than the axe of his ultimate strike. A forest sprung up around him the next moment, and he melded into the tree just before thousands of shimmering lights ripped his surroundings to shreds. A moment later, a gong echoed out as a protective bubble enclosed him—just in time to block out a massive shockwave that rocked the whole arena.

He had won.

56

BARGAIN HUNTING

As the dust settled, Zac was greeted by a deafening silence, even after the isolating array had been deactivated. Traprandar was arduously getting back to his feet, his right hand limply hanging to the side. A new wound, this one almost cutting the arm clean off, had been added to the other ones—the result of [Arcadia’s Judgment] finding its target.

Between Traprandar’s wounds, the pressure from the huge hand, and Zac’s omniscience through [Ancestral Woods], the Hegemon had been unable to dodge. As usual, the Arena Array sprung to action the moment Traprandar’s wounds passed a critical level, and Zac’s skill was dispersed before the Hegemon died.

Suddenly, a raucous laugh broke the silence, and Zac looked over to see Olgoroth laughing so hard, tears were streaming down his face.

“They got you. They got you!” he howled with glee. “My loss was worth it. Definitely worth it.”

Traprandar scowled at the Corpselord before turning his fiery gaze at Zac, who could only return a wry smile as he ate a healing pill and activated [Surging Vitality]. Part of him felt bad about scamming these two Hegemons out of their Purchase Points, which meant they would be less prepared for the next relegation. But Zac had already made sure they weren’t some sort of saints. They weren’t like Pavina or Kaldor who helped others in this prison or anything.

Then again, it ultimately didn’t matter.

This was how the Multiverse worked, where people fought tooth and nail for resources. So many had already died as a direct result of his pursuit of power, so what was some robbing? Resources would only grow scarcer as he continued down this path, where every single C-grade treasure would be hotly contested. A B-grade treasure was enough to start a war that would shock empires to their core. Getting weak-hearted meant death and the end of his aspirations.

Still, that didn’t do much to alleviate the mixed emotions Zac felt as he walked down from the arena and accepted his Purchase Points. He’d sworn he wouldn’t lose his mortal heart after descending the Havenfort Chasm, but it was getting harder and harder to live up to that promise.

Was his pang of remorse proof he still had a conscience or was it just him trying to convince himself he was the same person as the one before the integration?

“Little Pocket? No, ah, Zac Piker, was it?” a hesitant voice emerged from the path leading out of the arena.

It was Yurul, the gladiator he met the first time coming here. They’d met a few times since she had almost been a fixture in this place over the past decade, trying to find some sort of answer through these duels. However, this time her demeanor was a bit different from normal, and she looked at him with a queer gaze.

“I am entering seclusion,” Zac smiled. “I might not be back for a while.”

“Oh, alright,” Yurul nodded, before the tension in her face smoothed out.

It looked like she’d decided to not inquire about his real situation. Still, she took out a token from her Cosmos Sack, something she had never done before. “I have a twin sister on the outside. She was a young acolyte of the Everseal Tribunal of the Yr’Koloq Sector bordering the frontier. If you ever get out… If possible… Could you tell her what happened to me?”

“If I ever get the chance,” Zac nodded with a smile, taking the token and donning a hood as he left the arena.

His display of power along with the rumors of his unique situation would probably start a wave of discussion, something he had no interest in dealing with. He’d never heard of the Everseal Tribunal or the Yr’Koloq Sector, but if he stumbled upon the place in the future, he’d do Yurul the small favor of sending her sister the token since Yurul was the one who taught him the method to seize Purchase Points in this place.

But he didn’t want to get bogged down with too many Karmic Links, so he hurriedly left for Samsara’s Edge before anyone else caught up with him. He had accomplished the most important milestone before the duel with Kaldor, where he had properly entered the Integration Realm. Zac already knew he would be able to pass the fourth band with the strength and techniques he’d accumulated, but there was still eight months before the deadline.

Part of him wanted to go through the duel as soon as possible so he could finally return to Earth, but he had to be careful. Even with his current level, the Izh’Rak Reaver said Zac only had a 50% chance of survival. That was definitely too low for comfort when fighting against a battle-crazed Peak Monarch who supposedly could confirm his Dao any time he wanted.

Thankfully, there were some things he could still do to better those odds. The most obvious step was to elevate his two Dao Fragments to branches. Even if he couldn’t enjoy the attribute boost in this place, the breakthroughs would lend greater strengths to both his stances and his attacks. Kaldor had promised to keep his comprehension at the stage of Peak Fragments, so gaining another two Dao Branches would become a big advantage.

However, he needed some time to consolidate his gains before that. And just as it happened, Zac had a few more ideas on how to make the most of his next months. So, Zac didn’t immediately head toward his teachers or his cultivation caves, but rather toward the Contribution Store. Now that he was flush with cash, it was time to make some purchases.

The reason he took the risk and bet his whole fortune against the two Hegemons was that he didn’t want to leave the Orom World without picking up at least one of the unique treasures this huge bastard had snatched up over the eons. And there were a lot of them that collected dust in the Contribution Stores.

These were all items that would cause a storm in the outside world because of their unique benefits, but their cost-to-benefit ratio was too inefficient for most people in the Orom World. Some benefits and powerups didn’t provide Contribution Points, making people unwilling to stomach the high price tag. Others might provide benefits, but they were slow to materialize, making them a viable option only if you were already safe from the relegation.

An example of the latter was affinity-boosting treasures. They were extremely costly on the outside, especially those usable in the D-grade. But they were not as useful in the Orom World where you needed quick gains to survive the continuous relegation. So what if the benefits of higher affinities would slowly accumulate over a lifetime? In the Orom World, you needed to get stronger right now.

“Welcome, young master,” the store clerk nodded as Zac entered the store.

Only one other disk was occupied, the Orom World having completely returned to its usual pace after the excitement of the new arrivals had abated. Zac scanned the list of items, and breathed out in relief that all of the items he had his eyes on were still available. Three particular items piqued Zac’s interest more than the others.

The first option item was an item the registry called the [Hollow Core]. It was a semi-natural treasure reportedly formed from the core of a unique being and then reforged through some unknown natural calamity. It had been turned into an extremely sturdy container, perfect for building one’s Cultivator’s Core.

The [Hollow Core] exuded some sort of pressure that would forcibly contain rampant energies as you built up the core, allowing pretty much anyone with the prerequisite Dao Stages to form at least a medium-quality Cultivator’s Core. Even a cultivator could make use of it to improve their chances of success, and the stability it provided might allow a cultivator to push their core to the next tier.

However, it had one big drawback in this place. Using the treasure to form a Cultivator’s Core would drastically lessen the Contribution Points gained from the breakthrough.

When inquiring why that was, Zac found that the restrictive array of the [Hollow Core] was so unique, the prison brand didn’t manage to access the inspiration and insights from within. Certainly, if the Orom really wanted, it could probably improve the brand to gain access. But why bother exerting that kind of effort for some random unique item?

With a price tag of 32,000 Contribution Points, few E-grade cultivators could afford it. The few who could probably didn’t need it. They were most likely great talents who would be able to form high-quality Cultivator’s Cores, and the additional benefits the [Hollow Core] provided couldn’t cover the cost of both the treasure and the loss of points from their breakthrough.

Still, it could potentially be a great asset to Zac who didn’t have the benefits of cultivation manuals or natural affinities, and who wasn’t planning on breaking through inside the Orom World in either case. He could use all the advantages he could get to form something that could withstand his path.

The second treasure was a single seed of something called the Heavenrender Vine. It was an item suggested by Heda to replace Vivi when she eventually passed on. Zac had long since overcome the unsettled feeling of socializing with someone whose soul was in constant jeopardy of being consumed, and Zac had visited the Arborist regularly over the past twenty months.

Not only did she possess a wealth of knowledge regarding the path of Life, but dueling against her thousands of plant species was an immense assistance in integrating the vines into his fighting style. After all, he only had [Armament Mastery] on his undead side, and he sometimes hit roadblocks in translating the lessons.

Heda never held back when sharing her knowledge. She’d treated him with utmost sincerity since day one, in contrast to Ubo who mostly seemed to have invited Zac out of boredom, and then after that because of Zac’s connection to Three Virtues. Zac wanted to reciprocate the treatment, so he had surreptitiously asked about infusing the old vine with Creation Energy to restore her condition or forcibly allow her to breakthrough.

Unfortunately, Heda said it was no use.

No matter if you talked about plants of cultivators, all were born with the shackles of mortality, including cultivators. Certainly, some were less restrained than others, but everyone had a natural limit to their accomplishments. Less than one in ten thousand E-grade cultivators possessed the prerequisites to step into Hegemony naturally, and even fewer succeeded.

There was a small window of opportunity where you could break these shackles, using a mixture of momentum and opportunity to subvert your destiny. But if you missed that chance, you were essentially locked in. Not only would your body resist the evolution, but even the very core of your being resisted going any further.

Vivi had lived a long life, even for a Spirit Plant, and to forcibly prolong her life would bring more suffering than happiness, and neither Zac nor Heda wanted that. This was something all powerhouses of the Multiverse had to come to terms with sooner or later. There was only so much you could do even with all your strength and fortune. Not even Autarchs could subvert the basic law of aging.

That was why elders seldom got attached to the younger generations of their clans. Thousands of generations would rise and fall during their lifetime, and getting too invested would only lead to heartbreak, sometimes even Heart Demons hampering their own pursuit of the Dao.

Besides, Zac figured that his Creation Energy was more likely to drain what little lifespan the vine had remaining than recoup it. While Heda clearly had a special attachment to this vine, even she said Zac was better off focusing on a successor. To spend a century or two on purifying a high-potential seed with his Dao.

The Heavenrender Vine was a terrifying plant species that was almost unstoppable when fully grown. Its name came from the fact that it was extremely aggressive, and that it seemingly had no limits on how big it could grow. Some vines had conquered whole planets, forming vast, single-organism forests on its surface where all living things were prey.

The item in the store was classified as a Supreme-quality D-grade item, but it only cost 43,000 Contribution Points. The reason was simple—it didn’t really serve any purpose inside the Orom World. Nurturing and raising a Heavenrender Vine could bankrupt a Hegemon, and doing so wouldn’t award any Contribution Points.

In fact, the listing specifically said that Heavenrender Vines were a banned species that you weren’t allowed to grow in the Orom World. You were only allowed to buy the seed for study. For Zac, it could become a great asset down the road, and the vine would naturally enter the C-grade so long as Zac could afford to nurture it.

Heda even said there were B-grade vines out in the Multiverse, but anything beyond early C-grade would require unique fortuitous encounters.

The biggest risk with this purchase was that there was no guarantee he’d always use vines as he had over the past years. He’d discussed his use of armaments at length with Pavina, and Zac realized his attitude to his skills and tools was a bit rigid.

“Nothing is constant,” the Revenant had said one day when Zac voiced his concerns. “Things change as the seasons pass. Not everything needs to be carried to the end. Being sentimental can be useful when braving the eons of lonesome struggle that is the road of cultivation. It reminds you why you are fighting, why you refuse to give in.

“But do not let the things you carry become things that chain you down. It is a given that you will not use all the skills you acquire for all eternity. That does not mean they are useless now or that it is a waste of time learning them. They helped you during a period of your life, allowing you to reach the next stage of your path.

“One day, you might realize the chains are no longer needed for you to accomplish your goals. Will you still carry them because of a decision you made as a child?”

It was a worthwhile reminder. Zac had unintentionally reached a point where his Spirit Tools had become his companions. Where he was absolutely unwilling to give them up. He hadn’t even considered swapping out [Verun’s Bite] to some axe with greater potential. Zac would rather search for the fortuitous encounters required for Verun to accompany him to the end.

There wasn’t anything wrong with this mindset. The longer you nurtured a weapon, the more in tune with you and your path the weapon would become. Someone who constantly swapped out their weapons would be hard-pressed to reach that kind of natural cooperation as Zac had with his axe. Though while this was true for his axe, it didn’t need to be the same with everything else.

Just like Pavina said, if the vines didn’t work out, he could always stop using them. Pavina could accomplish more with a single finger than he could with all the tools in his repertoire. He didn’t need to be worried that he wouldn’t be able to display all the facets of his stances with his axe alone in the future.

Besides, he still hadn’t forgotten his longstanding promise to Alea. The goal was still to resurrect her, which carried a decent risk of destroying [Love’s Bond]. Even if the weapon survived, Zac wouldn’t have the same attachment to it afterward.

But even if he got the Heavenrender Vine and it turned out to be superfluous in the future, he could still have great use for it. As long as he managed to elevate it to middle C-grade, it would become an existence that few in Zecia would dare mess with. It had the potential to become Earth’s ultimate guardian in case Zac needed to leave home for prolonged durations when searching for his sister.

Finally, there was a treasure called the [Stone of Celestial Void]. From the looks of it, this was some sort of unique treasure born in the Void itself. It contained almost an incomprehensible amount of energy, enough to outright kill over a hundred Hegemons. Furthermore, it was said to hold some mysterious insights that were impossible to identify.

This was something he was eyeing for his bloodline. The amount of energy his Void Emperor bloodline had required to reach E-grade was almost unreal. Considering the biggest divide between E and D-grades was the immense energy reserves of Hegemons, Zac didn’t dare to think of how many resources it would cost to push his bloodline to the next stage.

The [Stone of Celestial Void] contained the potential to be the spark that allowed him to ignite his bloodline and begin the breakthrough, like when he somehow siphoned all the valuables in the depths of the Twilight Chasm.

The stone cost 56,000 Purchase Points, which was slightly above the 49,699 he currently possessed between winning the duel and getting almost 9,000 Contribution Points for reaching the Integration Stage. But as long as he formed his next two branches, he would most likely be able to afford it.

Apart from that, there were dozens of items of similar quality. While those didn’t seem as useful for his own cultivation, some were definitely more valuable on the outside. There was always the option of taking the most valuable item and exchanging it for something even better than these three things on the outside.

Zac stood frozen in hesitation for almost twenty minutes, but he eventually emerged completely broke from the store, now with a small wooden band on his finger. Inside, a small seed hovered above a vast field of spiritual soil, the space spanning a couple of square miles. The Contribution Store was pretty generous, throwing in a miniature realm where he could store and nurture plants.

He ultimately chose the seed since it felt like the Heavenrender Vine was the option with the best odds of paying great dividends.

The [Hollow Core] seemed pretty amazing, but he wasn’t certain it would work together with his Specialty Core that already formed a shell around the spot where his future Cultivator’s Core would be. Besides, he had the Perennial Vastness Token. He’d asked around, and while he couldn’t find anyone who had been there, he managed to pick up a few rumors.

From what he could gather, the method used in the Perennial Vastness Realm was unique, and it mainly relied on items gathered inside that unique realm. He had even sacrificed a Spatial Ring to confirm this by visiting Three Virtues. While the details were unclear, it was a trial and an opportunity wrapped into one, and the better you performed the better your core would become.

Zac couldn’t be certain, but there was a decent chance of outside tools like the [Hollow Core] proving useless, or at least inferior to native alternatives, in that place. The re-sell value of the [Hollow Core] was probably the lowest out of all the items as well, as it wasn’t that impressive to guarantee an ascent into D-grade. Those stuck at the bottleneck would surely pay anything for such an item, but E-grade cultivators didn’t have nearly enough money.

As for the use of [Stone of Celestial Void], it was just too big a risk. The Contribution Shop refused to take it out for him to inspect, so he couldn’t confirm its usefulness for his bloodline. Besides, it was simply too expensive, and choosing the stone wouldn’t allow him to complete the next part of his plan.

Forming Dao Branches meant a powerup, but it also meant something else in his case—he was about to get zapped with tribulation lightning. Twice. While it was deadly, it was also an opportunity. Last time, it had purified his body, ridding him of impurities, some of them so stubborn that [Purity of the Void] couldn’t get the job done. After these tribulations and the one when reaching D-grade, it might be centuries before he was presented with this opportunity again.

It was time to gunk up his body.

57

GUNKING UP

Zac had prepared for this step since he accepted Kaldor’s challenge, and with his latest spending spree, he had everything he needed to make the most out of his upcoming tribulations. He made a beeline for his cultivation cave upon leaving the Contribution Store, and arrived at the small island in the no-man’s-land between Life and Death a few days later.

Years had passed since he leveled the local plant life during his second reincarnation, but the vegetation had long since regrown thanks to the dense ambient energy. There were no signs of any habitation, but Zac’s surroundings shifted after he entered a dense patch of undergrowth and activated an array disk.

A latch appeared on the ground, and Zac opened it before jumping down. Behind him, the illusory arrays sprung back to life, hiding the entrance from any passer-by. Farther and farther down Zac went, until he reached a cave two hundred meters beneath the surface. The air shimmered as he passed through a checkpoint, and was immediately assaulted by ferocious waves of stockpiled energies.

Almost three years ago Zac had looked into creating this place to restart his Soul Strengthening cultivation, since he figured he might as well work on his soul while he digested all he’d learned in the Wilderness. Building such a place on top of the island felt too exposed for a permanent residence, so Zac decided to dig.

To Zac’s surprise, he stumbled into this place by chance. The cave was clearly man-made, but it had taken advantage of the energy veins of the neighboring zones to create a natural gathering formation. It was far superior to the one Triv had erected inside his cultivation cave back home, and even more efficient than the gathering array he purchased in the Contribution Store. Thankfully, there was no cultivator around, and the signs indicated it had been abandoned for a long, long time.

It looked like Zac wasn’t the first Life-Death cultivator trapped in the Orom World. Zac didn’t know who his predecessor was, since there were no messages or heritages left behind, but it saved Zac a lot of effort. He only needed to do some minor alterations to make the energy flow better suit his cultivation method, erect a couple of arrays, and he was done.

A prayer mat was left in the center of the cave, and Zac was immediately inundated in the struggle between Life and Death as he walked toward it. He’d already planned out how to extract as many benefits as possible from the tribulations, and leveling pills was just part of it.

He could do the same with his soul.

However, Zac didn’t start up the cultivation method yet, first slotting five Life-attuned Cosmic Crystals into an array, followed by five Miasma Crystals of similar rank. The powerful energies sealed inside the crystal joined the ambient energy, pushing the environment to the next level.

The expenditure was beyond exorbitant, with each of the crystals being worth hundreds of D-grade Nexus Coins, but they would last him over a month. More importantly, they allowed Zac to push the quality of his cultivation environment to a similar level as the hidden cave he found at the bottom of the Twilight Chasm.

Next, Zac released some Void Energy to take out his [Mind’s Eye Agate] before slotting it in a groove just behind the prayer mat. Farther from his prayer mat, he installed an array disk the size of a barrel lid. On it, Zac placed an intricately engraved chest.

Inside was the black and golden spiral-formed crystal of the twin-souled Realm Spirit, and they greedily started to absorb the energies in the cave the moment they were sealed. Even then, Zac saw how much weaker the lights were, and he felt some regret as he placed his hands against the smooth crystal. A weak nudge responded, proving that the spirits were still alive.

If he didn’t do something soon, they’d perish. He had tried all kinds of things since he first took them out a few years back, from sealing to nurturing, but he couldn’t replicate Qi’Sar’s array at all. They definitely wouldn’t last the full ten years the old Realm Spirit mentioned. He would be lucky if they survived more than a year.

Occasionally letting them feast like this seemed to help a bit, but they would stop absorbing the energies in a day or two, unable to continuously draw sustenance from the ambient energy. They were like plants dragged out of the soil, and anything he tried was just a temporary relief. Hopefully, he’d return to Earth in time.

If not, it was simply not fated. Perhaps the spirits would turn into some useful treasure upon their death.

Finally done with his preparations, Zac returned to his prayer mat and took out two of the bottles he’d bought. Zac left them alone for now, and withdrew the densely inscribed array disk for his Soul Strengthening Manual.

The cultivation methods of the first two reincarnations were simple enough. Zac had essentially been able to zone out and let the array do its thing, but those days were over. The third method of the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] required not only active participation, but also an actual understanding of Life and Death.

Five streams of Mental Energy were dragged out from Zac’s soul as he activated the array. Four came from his Life-attuned cores and one from his central core. Joining them was a stream of insight coming from the Bodhi Tree in his Soul Aperture. Zac had long realized that using his human side to cultivate Death didn’t help him at the current stage of his method, so he’d swapped over to circulating Life when human since that was what he was more accustomed to.

The continuous drain of energy would keep going for almost an hour, but Zac would be busy during that time. The outer cores of his soul sped up as Zac imposed his will on them, and their trajectories grew more and more inscrutable. Of course, Zac was extremely familiar with what the patterns entailed. They represented his Daos of Life and Death.

Their movements drew two separate pathways in the hidden space of his soul. One of Life, and one of Death. The cores were often precariously close to colliding, but they never actually touched. However, a great tension was building through the pathways, almost as if he was watching two armies simulating a war.

This simulation wasn’t autonomous. It required constant input from Zac as he visualized the trajectories and what they meant. A single slip-up would noticeably reduce the effect of the cycle, and resting for just a minute could ruin it altogether. Zac glanced at one of the pill bottles with hesitation, then ultimately chose to wait.

Fifty-five minutes passed as Zac continuously pushed the cores through countless revolutions of Life and Death. Finally, a torrent of Life-empowered energy came crashing back from the array, and Zac uncorked one of the bottles and poured out a pill into his hand. The small pill was shockingly powerful, emitting such immense fluctuations, it almost managed to hypnotize him.

He still wasn’t sure this would work, but he threw the golden bead into his mouth before it made him lose control over the trajectories in his mind. The pill melted before he even had a chance to swallow, and a moment later, a sandstorm of golden grains entered his Soul Aperture.

It was the medicinal efficacy of the pill he’d just ingested, the [Divine Elevation Pellet]. It could tenuously be considered a soul-nurturing pill, but it wasn’t something designed for Mentalists. In fact, no self-respecting Mentalist would willingly use this pill, even though its name was quite impressive.

It was a unique pill of the Orom World, sold by some unknown Emerald Badge from what Zac had gathered. Its use was simple, forcibly empowering souls with Life, providing the user with Contribution Points and a somewhat stronger soul. On the surface, it sounded great for any cultivator walking the path of Life. A soul more in tune with their Dao, without using any Soul Strengthening Method at that. What’s not to like?

The problem was that the pill contained a large amount of impurities, meaning it provided short-term benefits while potentially causing big issues down the road. It was a pill born from the desperation of this prison, where it was better to sacrifice some of your potential than being culled. It would buy the warriors some time, giving them a chance to turn things around.

Obviously, things rarely worked out for these people, but it was still a pill that had a steady demand in Samsara’s Edge. Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few similar pills on the market, for various attunements. Of course, the second bottle Zac had prepared was the same, but for his undead side.

Zac was taking a calculated risk here. Adding impurities to his soul at this stage might interfere with his Dao breakthroughs, but he dared use these pills since he’d suppressed his cultivation for so long. He was right at the cusp for both the Daos, and even if he met resistance, he could simply eat an additional Dao Fruit to crash through the barrier.

The ferocious sandstorm instinctively sought to join the returning surge of Mental Energy, but Zac held half of it back, instead pushing it into the four Divine Cores. Meanwhile, he guided empowered torrent toward another spot of his soul. A small golden globe that was barely visible next to the far larger outer cores.

The ninth outer core.

This little pellet had been formed the first time he activated the cultivation method, but it had been even smaller back then. Every time he practiced the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] since, the new core had grown a little as it was flooded with energy from the other cores. By now, it was roughly a tenth the size of the original cores, and Zac estimated it would take around fifteen years of daily cultivation to fully form it by normal means.

It wasn’t a lot, but it also wasn’t little.

Especially when considering he would need nine cores of Life and Death to reach the maximum number of cores. And that was just the first half of the method. Going by his observations, there had to be a subsequent period of strengthening his cores after they were all fully formed. Altogether, Zac figured the third reincarnation would require a century of focused cultivation.

A century wasn’t too much, even for an E-grade cultivator, but it showed why so few bothered with Soul Strengthening. By Zac’s estimates, the third reincarnation he was working on was equivalent to the second half of the E-grade in terms of stage. To spend a hundred years in the E-grade, where you spent almost eighteen hours a day on soul cultivation, was unacceptable to most people.

It wouldn’t leave enough time for all the other parts of cultivation, which meant it would either ruin your momentum or leave you with glaring weaknesses. Only a soul cultivator would feel this trade-off worthwhile—well, soul cultivators and Zac. Even then, the Mentalists would probably be able to speed up the progress compared to someone like Zac, who didn’t have a unique soul or any special affinities in that regard.

His only strength seemed to be that his soul had unlimited potential, and it didn’t get stuck in bottlenecks, just like his body. Most people couldn’t cultivate Soul Strengthening Methods even if they wanted, considering their souls would simply stop improving. Their souls would strengthen as their realms increased, but that was the extent of it.

But Zac was unwilling to spend a whole century on the third reincarnation, no matter how useful an empowered soul was. Luckily, he found some ways to shorten that duration. First of all, there were the two splinters who continuously fed his soul with high-grade energy. Secondly, he realized that the stronger the outer cores were, the quicker each revolution would be.

And the quickest way to improve the outer core was to snatch various opportunities. He had seen just how much time he saved on the second reincarnation by visiting the Twilight Ocean. Without the unique environment and all the lucky encounters in that place, he still would not have passed the second reincarnation, even if he’d circulated the method every single day.

Even the life-and-death struggles had honed his mind and shored up his foundations. Secluded cultivation simply couldn’t compare.

This didn’t change with the third reincarnation. He’d already consumed some resources he found in Aia Ouro’s Spatial Crystal, along with some treasures in his Spatial Rings. These treasures had helped him not only grow his main core but also condense the attuned energies in his outer cores.

He would have to keep looking for materials to speed up the process, be it pills, natural treasures, or unique cultivation grounds.

Hours passed as three more rotations were finished, where Zac ate another pellet after every single revolution. The fifth Divine Core had enjoyed shocking improvements, though Zac could sense he would only be able to use these pills for another cultivation session before they lost their efficacy. Even now, a good chunk of the golden mist was expunged by his body before it even reached his Soul Aperture.

Furthermore, his Divine Cores all sported a series of dark-gray spots now, the impurities that had been hidden in the golden storm. Another hour passed and Zac took a fifth pill as the energy from the fifth revolution returned. He was hoping he could change what was about to happen next by controlling the medicinal energy, but he ran into a dead-end.

Zac could only look on with some disappointment as the stream of Life-attuned energies dissipated into a haze, failing to reach the fifth core.

As the cores moved through his Soul Aperture, the energies were gradually returned to the four outer cores. That, unfortunately, didn’t do anything to strengthen them though. It only put them in an excitable state, just like how the seas had started raging in the previous reincarnation. Even then, Zac had to continue, completing one revolution after another where most of the energy was lost to the Void.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to start up the second half of his method. Zac still couldn’t quite comprehend the exact reason for this limitation. If possible, he would have preferred to focus all nine revolutions in rapidly building up the missing outer cores, but he was restricted by the number of cores he completed.

Four fully-formed cores meant he would be able to infuse the fifth core four times and no more.

Each additional core would allow the trajectories of the outer cores to grow more complex, which in turn would improve his soul in all kinds of ways, including how many energy infusions he could complete. If he had only managed to form one or two outer cores of each attunement, he would have been forced to spend twice as much time on the third reincarnation. At the very least.

The more outer cores he formed, the quicker the next formation would become. For example, the ninth and final core should only take half the time the fifth did, considering it would be infused eight times per cycle. Besides, putting the outer cores in an excitable state didn’t come without its benefits, so Zac let nature take its course as he finished all nine cycles.

By the time the ninth revolution was complete, the Divine Cores moved almost twice as fast as their opposites, and the Miasmic Cores were greatly restrained.

Having finished the first half of the cultivation session, Zac swapped over to his Draugr form and began the work on the second set of revolutions. Just like in his human form, he took a pill each time for the first four revolutions. This one was exactly the same as the [Divine Elevation Pellet], though it was called [Ruin’s Gift] and forcibly expanded souls with the taint of Death.

Thankfully, Zac was able to form the fifth Miasmic Core simultaneously as the Divine Core, cutting the time spent in half. Once more, four sets of empowered streams of Mental Energy nurtured the growing core before the whole set of Miasmic Cores became more and more frantic, their movements no longer as suppressed.

Zac looked at his middle core silently hovering in the heart of it all. As the outer cores had grown more excitable, small motes had started to fall toward the central core, landing on its surface like a thin layer of snow. However, with only four sets of outer cores, the conflict still couldn’t reach a level that also refined the main core, so it simply grew without getting more condensed.

This process would continue for over an hour until the outer cores left their empowered state. With both sets finished, Zac no longer needed to provide any input. The outer cores were like wind-up toys, moving on their own now that Zac had staked and infused energy for the better part of a day.

He could even move around a bit, though too much would shorten the duration his soul got nurtured. Zac stayed put for now, and took out a third pill bottle and swallowed two pills inside. A ferocious surge of energy barged into his mind, and the small motes of snow were swept up by a blizzard that engulfed his central core.

A burst of synthetic progress was added to his unattuned core. Just like the other two pills, Zac intentionally chose a pill that provided huge benefits but contained large amount of pill toxins. Unfortunately, Zac found that the unattuned pill wasn’t as effective as the two attuned ones. He’d feared as much, considering the large amount of resources like this he’d consumed not long ago.

Still, it was better than nothing, and Zac figured it might save him a month or two of hard work. Soon enough, his mind returned to its normal state, signifying that the session was over. Even then, Zac sat unmoving for almost twenty minutes, not immediately continuing his training plan.

He was only delaying the inevitable and had already made his choice. With great reluctance, he swapped out his prayer mat with a large barrel. Next, he took out a large stone urn sealed with a dense layer of talismans. He took a deep breath before ripping off the talismans. This uncorked the container and allowed him to gradually fill the barrel with its contents.

Zac thought he’d been mentally prepared, but quickly realized his folly. His hair stood on end, his eyes watered, and he was hit by a wave of nausea that almost knocked him out. This was unlike anything Zac had encountered before and beyond his scope of comprehension.

The gray viscous mixture smelled like an embattled porta-potty three days into a festival where nothing but eggs and hot sauce was served.

The stench was so overbearing, it could be considered both a mental and physical attack wrapped into a single odor. Plugging his nose and sealing his pores had done nothing to alleviate the horror. The stench almost seemed sentient and refused to be denied.

Yet Zac kept pouring. The road of cultivation was full of tribulations, and this was just the latest one. Even then, Zac felt this one might be even more difficult to overcome than the Heavenly Lightning.

58

CELESTIAL CLAY

The stone urn was a Spatial Treasure, and Zac resealed it when the barrel was three-quarters full. For better or worse, there was a lot more of the gray mud stored in the vat, and he had to save it for future endeavors. The stench had spread through the whole cave, the environmental arrays utterly incapable of stemming the unceasing emanations.

Zac wasn’t any better off after withstanding the initial wave of nausea. His nose, his very being, refused to acclimate to the stench. The hexbrew was something mentioned by Heda, but even she had been unable to recommend it when Zac asked about items with powerful effects but large drawbacks.

The bubbling gray mud was called [Celestial Clay], in what might be one of the most egregious cases of overselling something Zac had ever encountered. It could be considered a natural treasure, something that was nearly impossible to create. It did, however, have a small chance of forming in tainted lands marked by extreme blights, war, or natural disasters. In other words, places with extremely fell Karma.

But just like the sign at the Havenfort Chasm said, ‘Night is the mother of the day.’ Something divine could really be born out of this horrifying product. The [Celestial Clay] was one of the rare items that could boost one’s inherent Luck and was even more effective than most Attribute Fruits.

Fruits providing Luck were hot commodities, and Zac hadn’t been able to get his hands on any even if a few had popped up in the Contribution Store. Everyone could use a bit of Luck in this prison, since it could be the difference between finding inspiration and being relegated. However, while all the Luck-boosting fruits had been sold the first day the store was refilled, the [Celestial Clay] remained in stock since the previous cycle.

If it was just the smell, most cultivators would simply grit their teeth and jump right in before secluding themselves until the stench abated. But there was an issue with how the clay was formed. Being born in all that fell Karma, it unsurprisingly contained extremely hard-to-cleanse impurities that spread through one’s whole body.

That might just be a thorny problem that could slowly be alleviated for a powerful faction on the outside. Then again, those kinds of factions would probably find other means to fill out their Luck. In the Orom World, where you couldn’t spare the time to slowly purify your body, it was almost a death sentence. What good was extra Luck when the impurities were enough to risk your future breakthroughs?

Only two groups of people would dare use [Celestial Clay]. Someone like Zac, with the unique abilities to cleanse impurities, or people absolutely out of options. Most in the latter group would rather spend their last Purchase Points on things like the Cultivation Chambers or Dao Treasures.

Zac fought to quell his full-body dry heaves as he dressed down to his underwear before sinking into the mud, letting the sludge rise all the way to his neck. A shudder went through his body, before he finally dipped his head beneath as well. Thus, he was fully submerged in the profane compound.

Some things were not as bad as they smelled, but the [Celestial Clay] was definitely not one of them. As the weird gunk entered his pores, his whole body felt like it had become an olfactory organ, completely inundating him in the malodor. Zac had to forcibly grip his knees to keep himself from flying out of the vat, ruining the opportunity.

After being taken from its pool of origination, the [Celestial Clay] wouldn’t last more than twelve hours outside of a sealed environment. Even sealed, it couldn’t last more than a millennium or two, a stark contrast to most items that could last for eons inside a Spatial Tool. Most believed the Heavenly Secrets locked in the goop couldn’t be permanently contained, and it would escape sooner or later.

Zac could only endure and thank the Heavens there was no one around to see or smell what he was doing. He could imagine the comments if someone like Ogras or Emily had seen this cultivation method. He wouldn’t hear the end of it.

But he didn’t have many other options.

The rules of his duel with Kaldor were clear. It was a straightforward melee without the use of skills or his Remnants. That left him with few ways to improve his odds in the short run. Dao and Technique were the big two. Boosting his Luck was one of the best alternative solutions to garner an advantage he’d come up with.

He had room to gain around 20 raw points in Luck since he had only filled up around half of his ceiling with Attribute Fruits for both F and E-grade. With all his titles, that would boost his Effective Luck by nearly 100 points, and it was an improvement completely unrestrained by the prison brand. That might be what would clinch victory against a tough opponent like Kaldor.

Luckily, the [Celestial Clay] wasn’t grade-restricted like the Attribute Fruits. Four rounds of cultivating like this, one bath a week, should be enough to hit the limit. He wished there was more he could do, but there were only so many ways to improve. With the rules for the duel like they were, his bloodline was essentially useless, not that he had any way to improve it further at this point.

If the Contribution Store had more treasures that could open up more Draugr nodes, that would be one thing, but he was out of luck there. He considered treasures meant to improve constitutions, but nurturing constitutions with an awakened bloodline was essentially impossible.

Apart from his soul and the [Celestial Clay], Zac only had one final solution. He was planning on breaking through a couple of levels, since every level gained did slightly improve the speed with which he could circulate the energy in his body. Other than that, he would simply have to continue to train, pushing his Integration Stage techniques even further.

Since the clay would retain its efficacy for half a day, Zac desperately struggled to enter a meditative state to escape the stench. Interestingly enough, his connection to his two Dao Fragments always felt much clearer after running the latest method of the [Nine Reincarnations Manual].

There was something about observing and running those mysterious patterns with his cores that strengthened his bond to those Daos, and today was no exception.

He hoped to break through the first of the two Dao Branches in a month, making this his final opportunity to revise and go over all his insights. The hours passed, and Zac arduously managed to forget the vile mud he was ensconced inside. Eventually, he heard a crackling sound, which meant the clay had dried into a brittle, solid mass that was fast falling apart.

Zac was filled with relief as pushed through the flakes of dried [Celestial Clay], crawling out as though it was a barrel full of snakes. He threw the barrel into a Spatial Ring before setting up another array. For the next few hours, Zac was trapped inside a storm of water, spiritual leaves, and coarse sponges that scrubbed him all over thousands of times. Meanwhile, the cave was slowly being aired out by the environmental array, the stench finally giving way now that it was without a source.

Even then, Zac didn’t feel completely clean when he emerged, even if every particle of clay had been removed from his skin. Perhaps he wouldn’t feel clean for months after that experience. However, his mood visibly improved when he noticed that his Luck had improved by 16 points from this one session, meaning one bath provided a full 8 raw Luck.

That was essentially the equivalent of a Peak Luck Fruit at less than a percent of the cost.

With that ordeal out of the way, Zac spent the next week in seclusion alternating between opening a node with a node-breaking pill and cultivating his soul. As Zac expected, the Soul Strengthening pills he prepared mostly lost their efficacy after three sessions, but Zac estimated he saved almost two years of progress.

Of course, in normal situations it might have taken a decade to gradually rid his body of all the impurities, making the method useless for Mentalists. Eventually, it was time for another cursed bath, and this process repeated twice more until the day his breakthrough arrived. By now, his body was absolutely permeated by impurities—from his soul to nodes and cells.

But the progress wasn’t bad. A greatly enhanced soul and two new levels, for both his races. It could have been more, but Zac didn’t want any lingering damage to his body when dealing with the tribulation lightning. He’d pulled out all the stops, from using the disgusting [Chainbreaking Pills] to Supreme-quality node-breaking pills, leaving almost no damage behind.

Most importantly, he’d gained a full 51 points in Luck. When adding all the points his Attribute Fruits provided thus far, Zac had actually surpassed the limits of a normal cultivator. For example, even with his background and unique bloodline, he had been unable to gain any more than 25 points in Strength from Attribute Fruits.

Some races could slightly surpass these limits for specific stats. But 25 per grade was a hard cap on Luck, no matter your origin. Most couldn’t even get that. However, Zac managed to gain 27 raw points in Luck per grade, pushing his Luck all the way to 591 Points.

Zac had no idea what allowed this attribute to surpass the normal limits. It might be related to the Fated titles he got, where a stronger fate might allow for greater leeway. Or it might be something else entirely. In fact, Zac wasn’t even sure if he reached his limits since he had run out of [Celestial Clay].

But that was just as well, considering it felt like he was covered in a film of oil from all the impurities in his body. If not for the upcoming tribulation and his Hidden Node, he would essentially be crippled by this point. The feeling was extremely uncomfortable, and he was afraid that staying like that for too long would directly hamper his mental state. Perhaps, it would even affect his ability to absorb the Dao.

Zac finally left his month-long seclusion and headed toward the [Hallowed Pools], the cultivation ground that matched the [Blackink Mountain] in function. His breakthroughs had provided an impressive influx of Purchase Points, and he sprung for one of the Middle-grade chambers for half a day.

This cultivation cave was a golden pond hidden in a cave underground, where the walls were studded with Divine Crystals. Zac felt like he was looking at a primordial soup as he stared at the shimmering waters, the origin of Life. He’d developed a small phobia against submerging himself in cultivation liquid thanks to that wretched mud, but there was barely any hesitation as he swam to the depths of the pond.

The moment he entered the waters, Zac was almost forcibly dragged into his breakthrough prematurely. He held onto his sanity as he reached the bottom of the pond where a small array was engraved. He was pushing it renting a cave meant for Hegemons, but he was confident in maintaining his own vision of Life.

For years now, he’d delayed his breakthrough as he condensed and perfected his path and his stances. At this point, he could see the route he wanted to take so clearly, it might as well be real. Over the past month, he’d spent every waking moment pondering his path, confirming that the truths he seized during his endless battles were in tune with his path.

The last time he upgraded his Life-attuned Dao was after the battle with Ventus, the Radiant Temple Numerologist. Since then, he had encountered and experienced so much. In fact, he witnessed so many expressions of Life since he started cultivating, from the various facets of the human experience to the more conceptual meanings of Life.

For some, like Traprandar, Life manifested as a powerful light, a beacon that could both nurture and destroy. It was a force of nature like lightning or fire. It was the sun, sharing its blessing with the world but burning anything that came too close.

For others, Life represented Divinity—the bridge between mortality and the Heavens. It was the gift of the Cosmos and what connected almost all beings of the Multiverse. Thus, it represented the cohesiveness of the shared consciousness, where all was one and the one was all—one of the tenets of the Buddhist Sangha.

In Zac’s case, he saw Life as change, as boundless opportunity and possibility, resisting any and all restraints imposed upon it. Since his first vision of the Lifebringer, the celestial tree that outgrew its homeworld, he’d delved deeper and deeper into the truths of the transformative nature of Life. At first, change was represented through the changing cycles of nature when he worked on his Seed of Trees.

From there, it integrated the ability to break convention by adding the concepts of braving the harsh winds and finding Life through Death. At the same time, the Seed of Sanctuary added stability. It made his Dao impervious to the wills of external pressures, where Life derived from within could break the chains of fate and bring about endless possibilities.

Life represented progress, as materialized through his Evolutionary Stance. Only through a constant cycle of reinvention could perfection be grasped. However, his path was not one of passive discovery, of accepting whatever change came his way. Seizing and comprehending Life was to control Life. To control fate. Through his comprehension of Life, he would become the arbiter of his future.

That was his Path of Supremacy.

Suddenly, Zac’s pores opened wide, greedily absorbing the surrounding waters with such gusto that the whole cave shook. At the same time, the Bodhi Tree in his mind detached from its usual spot on one of the Divine Cores. It took position above his central core, like the Bodhi was becoming the Heavens of his inner world.

Hundreds of small streams of purified insights entered his Soul Aperture and were swallowed by the Bodhi, all while Zac staunchly held onto his path. The Dao Avatar kept growing in response, molding itself into Zac’s vision of the Dao of Life. Eventually, Zac’s Dao Field exploded out from his body as a massive apparition appeared above his head, stretching all the way to the pond’s surface over twenty meters above.

At first, the apparition mirrored the Dao Avatar’s appearance, but it gradually started to transform. It had become the Lifebringer, its branches stretching toward eternity, a realm unto its own. The next moment, it was the apocalyptic tree that was created from the volcanic eruption in the Twilight Ocean. The consecrated Bodhi Tree that once birthed the [Prajñā Cherry], the small sapling he had found in the Dead Zone.

Both avatar and apparition kept changing, reflecting both his sources of inspiration and the ever-changing nature of his comprehension.

A rumble spread through the world, reaching the very core of Zac’s being. His eyes shot open, and he was surprised to find himself standing in outer space. His surprise didn’t come from the fact that he overlooked a beautiful galaxy full of vibrant colors, but rather that he had been moved to Orom’s Tribulation Dimension without so much as a spatial ripple.

Unfortunately, this space was even more tightly sealed than the Orom World itself, and escape was all but impossible. Of course, the spatial restrictions didn’t apply to the Heavens, and Zac saw how an ominous black cloud started to spread through the emptiness of space shrouding the cosmos above his head. Zac frowned when the roiling darkness kept expanding to the point it stretched for dozens of kilometers in every direction.

It was large. Very large. During his last tribulation, he had been pretty out of it, but he was certain this Tribulation Cloud was larger than last time around. Its diameter was at least 30% wider, which Zac could only assume would translate into a harsher punishment. His fears were all-but-confirmed as he sensed the intangible presence hidden within, the boundless wrath of the Heavens.

It was out for blood.

59

CALAMITY

As expected, the punishment for evolving a Dao firmly outside the System’s purview came with a harsher challenge. The System wasn’t shouldering any part of the tribulation this time around. Each rumble was a primal call of destruction, with each purple flash hidden within the clouds containing condensed wrath for going against the natural order.

This was not a trial. It was a calamity.

The golden tree that had been conjured by his breakthrough shuddered from the pressure, and a pang of fear hit Zac as he looked up at the vast energies that had accumulated. He couldn’t stop the pang of primal fear from gripping his heart. After all, only 5% of people who directly shouldered a tribulation survived.

Even then, Zac’s heartbeat was steady and his gaze was calm. This time around, Zac wasn’t accidentally stumbling into a breakthrough. He’d prepared for this step for a long time. He wouldn’t be one of those who had their path cut short. He was here to crash through Heaven’s punishment in one go.

Five swirls beneath his feet continuously fed him with insights from the pond back in the [Hallowed Pools], fueling his aspiration as he reformed his Dao Field with the tree in the center. With his Dao on full display, it felt like this desolate pocket of space had become a lush forest full of verve. A clap of furious thunder greeted the arrival of Zac’s Dao, and the vast presence fully focused on him as the errant arcs of purple lightning started to gather.

This time, he wouldn’t swing at the lightning bolts like a lunatic. He’d done his research on how to best surpass a tribulation. There were some ways to deal with the lightning bolts, but directly attacking the lightning wasn’t one of them as far as Zac could tell. Perhaps if one was disgustingly powerful you could directly disperse the clouds, but Zac was far from that level.

What he did the last time during his bout of hubris was akin to pouring gasoline on the fire, only worsening the situation. In reality, there were two paths to go about the breakthrough—to hide from the Heavens or to defy the Heavens. These two terms were even older than the System itself. Which was no surprise, considering the boundless cultivators walked their path with at least one foot outside the System’s purview.

Hiding from the Heavens meant figuring out ways to weaken the tribulation or make it spread its focus. Some unorthodox cultivators set up sinister arrays where human sacrifices were performed to hide their fate or temporarily displace their Dao onto someone else, tricking the Heavens into targeting the innocent. What his mother did to Thea was exactly this—sacrificing an outsider to allow Kenzie to pass into the E-grade.

Some unique treasures and methods weren’t as sinister though.

The most famous faction who hid from the Heavens were no doubt the Technocrats, who supposedly perfected this technique. From what he’d gathered, they were able to weaken the tribulation by more than 70%, depending on their individual tech. There were even rumors of some sort of Technocrat Holy Land that was completely shielded from both the System and the Heavens.

That alone ignited another wave of wrath in Zac upon learning. His mother obviously had various means to cheat or weaken Kenzie’s tribulation lightning, yet she chose to use an unorthodox technique that killed Thea. It wasn’t an act of necessity—it was spite. Just the thought of it made Zac’s anger come bubbling again, but he quickly quenched it before refocusing on his breakthrough.

Zac couldn’t relax or get distracted. He had no plans of hiding from this tribulation.

The benefits of hiding from the Heavens were obvious. You’d survive where you would likely have fallen otherwise, carrying on with your life. The downside was pretty punishing as well, though. Your breakthrough could barely be considered successful, though Zac wasn’t too sure this applied to the Technocrats.

From what he’d heard, cheating a breakthrough this way was almost akin to forming a Half-Step Cultivator’s Core. While the reality wasn’t quite that bad, it was still a far cry from a true breakthrough. At best, you’d have to spend a huge amount of time and effort on shoring up the weak foundations left behind by the false breakthrough.

At worst, your cultivation journey had come to its end.

Few elites who stepped on the path of the boundless were willing to live with such a drawback, and they chose to believe in themselves and their ability to withstand the punishing bolts of lightning. That was the kind of conviction one needed to defy the Heavens. To stare into the eyes of death and not flinch.

For most, tribulation lightning was simply a calamity to be avoided at all costs, and they didn’t have the strength to seize the opportunity it presented. In fact, there were benefits to directly taking the lightning bolts of the old Heavens, benefits that not even the System could provide. His bloodline had simply allowed him to take far more advantage than most.

As long as warriors properly withstood the punishment of the Heavens, they could absorb small wisps of the Heavens themselves. For cultivators, it was an opportunity to marginally increase their affinities. Having the lightning pass through their Dao Fields also helped stabilize your Dao, saving you months of hard work.

Zac most likely wouldn’t be able to enjoy the former with his unique bloodline. He should have noticed some change after the previous tribulation if that was the case. But he did think he could benefit from the latter, which was a huge advantage for his upcoming fight. The less time he needed to consolidate, the more time he could spend on improving his techniques.

His ability to cleanse his body with tribulation lightning seemed to be a unique benefit of his bloodline though, and he hadn’t heard of anyone else benefiting in this manner. Last time, it was all thanks to his [Void Heart] swallowing lightning and turning it into something usable that thoroughly cleansed his body and strengthened him. However, Zac believed he hadn’t unearthed the full potential of his bloodline.

Karz had been able to draw sustenance from pretty much anything. Zac bet that Karz would be able to swallow at least some tribulation lightning, even if it hadn’t been shown in the visions. The same was true for the mysterious man who had flown through the cosmos in his node-opening visions, swallowing stars like it was nothing.

Zac felt he should be able to do the same. As the first bolt of lightning congealed in the clouds, Zac steadied his mind. He had two goals today, apart from simply surviving. First, he wanted to stay conscious throughout the whole breakthrough so he could take full advantage of this opportunity. Secondly, he wanted to seize a bit of the lightning himself, performing an initial cleansing round to remove some of the muck that permeated his body.

The purple arcs of lightning lit up the whole cosmos, hatred and spite taken physical form. Even as Zac held onto his convictions, he couldn’t completely erase that initial primal fear. This was probably how the ancient cavemen of Earth felt as they hid from the crashing thunder, fearing the wrath of an almighty god.

Zac didn’t know why, but that thought somewhat calmed his nerves. Perhaps it was a connection of sorts. A shared experience from generation to generation, linking them across the long river of time. The cavemen had survived, and this storm, too, would pass.

The first bolt descended, and Zac took a steadying breath as he infused all the willpower and conviction into his Dao Field, which was now shrunk to its absolute minimum. It was so condensed that it barely covered the tall apparition, which had sunk to cover Zac’s whole body. He was practically hidden in the core of the Bodhi’s trunk, protected from the raging calamity outside.

This was the true way to withstand a tribulation, to anneal your Dao in Heaven’s Mandate.

Unfortunately, being prepared didn’t mean you were safe, and the whole world turned white as a pillar of lightning completely covered him and his Dao Field. The shimmering Bodhi was only able to stop the onslaught for half a second before it cracked, allowing the lightning to squeeze inside and target Zac.

It looked like the whole tree was burning, the golden sheen was supplanted by a blinding purple. Zac’s whole Dao Field was on the verge of collapse, but he staunchly held on, feeling his Dao being tempered. The only solution he’d come up with was to open the gates to [Spiritual Void], unleashing all of his Sealed Dao to strengthen his field.

As far as Zac could tell, this shouldn’t be considered a shortcut. It wasn’t some outside skill, it was simply his Dao and nothing else. He hoped this would allow his Dao Field to last longer, allowing it to be tempered even further than normal. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in any position to gauge the effect, as he was busy just withstanding the brunt of the attack.

His protective bubble was already breached, and Zac became filled with Heavenly wrath. His instincts screamed to give in, to push it away, to do anything to end this soul-rending pain. He’d been assaulted by all kinds of attacks before. Flames, acid, poison, and all forms of weapons. He had bled, he had been maimed, he had hovered at the border of death. Even his soul was once ripped apart. But never before had he encountered this kind of pain.

It was all-consuming and final, the ultimate retribution for stealing the Dao from Mother Nature. The tribulation was lightning yet not lightning. It was more akin to Oblivion in a sense, yet it wasn’t. If anything, the tribulation lightning rather felt like it contained the absolute absence of Dao, the absence of everything. Everything it touched would be destroyed, since the Dao was the basic building block of the universe.

It was a Void.

Zac knew he was screaming from the pain, but he couldn’t hear his cries over the crackling sounds of his soul frying. He was using his all to just stay afloat, to desperately try and complete the tasks he set for himself. His tattered mind pushed and pushed, trying to impose his will on the frantic lightning coursing through his body, trying to use it to singe the largest spots of impurities in an ultimate baptism.

Unfortunately, channeling the tribulation was completely out of his grasp, as the lightning had a will of its own, a will far more powerful than his own. His [Void Heart] had already woken up and started to greedily swallow any bolts that came close. Its momentum was gradually increasing, prompting the tribulation to realize the danger just like last time.

Since he couldn’t channel the energy, Zac instead tried to keep it inside his body a little while longer before it escaped the [Void Heart]’s hunger. It would ravage his insides even more, but he confirmed that while his cells were being destroyed, it took some of the impurities with it. It wasn’t quite as much as he’d hoped, but it was better than nothing.

He only managed to withhold the lightning for a second before it forced its way out, leaving Zac panting heavily, cracks covering his skin. His Dao Field was completely shredded, but Zac roused his spirit to reform it as he ate a cocktail of healing pills. Soothing waves spread through his body and mind, but it wouldn’t make much of a difference.

After all, the second wave was already descending.

The bolt slammed into his reformed Bodhi Tree, once more drowning it in purple destruction. The second lighting contained even more power, and Zac couldn’t maintain his field for more than an instant before the lightning poured into his body, transporting him to a world of agony.

There were no longer any thoughts in Zac’s mind of controlling or taking advantage. He only clung to survival as bleeding cracks opened up all across his body. His Soul Aperture wasn’t much better off, with the tranquil star system beset by a fierce calamity. The Cores were pelted by bolts, covering them in hairline cracks.

What felt like an eternity passed until the lightning finally left his body, and Zac wheezed as he looked up to the sky, his vision blurry and his mouth tasting metal. Just one more. One final strike and he’d be done with it. Even more impurities had been expunged, but the effect was actually worse than after the first bolt.

Was it because he was unable to affect the situation on his own? Or was it because there simply had been so many impurities in his body the first time around, that it was impossible to avoid?

There was no way to tell, and Zac’s only thoughts were now on staying awake. To maintain his Dao and hold onto his convictions. There was no turning back, and Zac took a steadying breath before roaring in defiance as the third bolt crashed into him. The Bodhi was reduced to splinters and his blood to ash, overwhelming all resistance.

His soul was lightning, his body was lightning. There was nothing else. Only pain and the color purple. He was just a leaf swept up in a hurricane bent on destruction. But he held on to that flickering sense of self, of the golden tree that could carry the weight of the Heavens themselves.

An instant was stretched to infinity. Eras turned as Zac was caught in purgatory, assaulted from every direction by voices that told him to give in. That he would still pass even if he let go. After all, he was the descendant of the Void Emperor, his lineage would keep him safe. Yet he held on, refusing to rely on that sort of crutch.

A million times he was urged to surrender, and a million times he said no.

Then the pain stopped. The change so sudden Zac wasn’t sure the impression was real, but the vibrant cosmos soon came into view, confirming the lightning had receded. The tearing agony had been imprinted into the core of his being and its shadow lingered, confusing Zac’s mind.

He’d made it.

Not only that, he remained conscious, albeit barely. The clouds slowly parted, their churning undulations filled with a sense of frustration and unwillingness. At the same time, the cosmos started to blur, and Zac found himself back in the bottom of the pond once more. This wasn’t teleportation, it was some sort of Space Melding, where two coordinates or two dimensions were fused into one.

Now wasn’t the time to think about that, and he focused on the storm of energy that entered his body, dragged into his mind by his glowing Dao Avatar. The divine tree was greedily drinking the rich water in the pond as it completed its transformation. Zac looked on, filled with an odd sense of discrepancy.

Not with the Dao itself, since it was gradually becoming more and more in tune with his path. It was rather an odd spatial phenomenon, where he felt the tree was rapidly growing even though it stayed the same size inside his aperture. Like that small avatar was the size of a mountain, yet it kept growing somehow.

His body was riddled with wounds, and his souls were covered in cracks. Yet he suppressed the pain after swallowing another set of pills, his mind fully occupied with observing his Dao Branch.

As the hours passed, the form of the tree didn’t change much. The most significant change was how the branches, which previously formed almost a circle that enclosed the trunk in a protective bubble, were being raised into the air. Soon enough, they all pointed to the sky, giving Zac the impression they were holding up the Heavens themselves.

From the branches, leafy vines hung down toward its roots, their lazy movements filled with whispers of Life. He couldn’t hear anything from inside his aperture, but he still felt like he could hear a soothing rustle from the Dao Avatar, and he felt like he was transported back to his courtyard in Port Atwood.

Safe, secure.

Eventually, the process stopped, and the tree returned to root itself on one of the Divine Cores. Zac finally let himself relax, knowing he had perfectly passed the tribulation. A quick estimate proved he still had a few hours on the chamber, so he swam out of the pond and sat down on its shore, no longer requiring such massive bursts of energy.

Zac needed to go over the state of his body, of his soul. However, there was one thing he needed to do before all that, and he quickly opened his Dao Screen.

Branch of the Kalpataru (Early): All attributes +50, Dexterity +300, Endurance +800, Vitality +2250, Intelligence +50, Wisdom +250, Effectiveness of Vitality +25%

60

KALPATARU

Zac blankly looked at his new Dao Branch for a few moments before he finally remembered where he’d heard the term Kalpataru before. Seeing something he barely recognized was a bit of a surprise. He expected something simple along the lines of ‘Branch of the Consecrated Bodhi,’ ‘Divine Tree,’ or even ‘Branch of the Yggdrasil’ for his new Dao Branch.

Just like its predecessor, the name came from Buddhist scripture. With so many exalted monks living in the Life-attuned area, Zac had broadened his knowledge of the Buddhist Sangha quite a bit over the past years. One of the monks had mentioned the Kalpataru, a Divine Tree with the power of longevity, something closely linked to Life.

If consecrated properly, it could even grant one’s wishes, which was the domain of Creation. The tree was apparently a real thing and not a myth, but it was more akin to a natural treasure than a Spiritual Plant. It couldn’t be grown and it produced no seeds. It would appear out of nowhere, born from the Cosmos itself. It even had a will of its own, and if it wanted to leave, not even an Autarch could keep it.

It would just disappear, avoiding all restrictions as it moved to another part of the Multiverse.

Seeing how the name still followed a Buddhist heritage didn’t bother Zac. It was ultimately just a name, derived from Zac’s understanding of the universe. It didn’t mean the monks managed to subvert his path or infuse the teachings of Buddha into his Dao. He was simply cultivating Life through the imagery of a tree and the concept of change, making the name fitting enough.

What mattered was the content of his Dao, and he had never felt so in tune with his Life-attuned Dao as he did right now. He finally felt the Dao had become his own. Until now, it had been propped up by Dao Fruits and necessity. Now, it was remolded to perfectly fit his path, something that could be discerned through the change in attribute allocation.

Vitality was still the main attribute, followed by Endurance. However, seeing that the Dao Branch added 300 Dexterity was a welcome surprise. With his two classes and conflict-based Dao Branch, his Strength was running far ahead of his other attributes. It still wasn’t at the level where it caused him any trouble, but he ultimately wanted to aim for a more rounded build.

While he had gained a bunch of Dexterity, Zac had actually lost some Wisdom, while his Intelligence barely increased. It was an obvious shift of focus, where the points that should have gone into Wisdom had been allocated into Dexterity.

It was a welcome change, as far as Zac was concerned.

He’d needed the points in Wisdom back when his soul and its defenses were lacking. But now, his soul was becoming extremely powerful, to the point it was even sturdier than his body. He didn’t need the extra mental strength and protection provided by Wisdom, and he was better off gaining some speed instead.

Zac closed the Status Screen and touched his token next, prompting a [9,715] to appear. Almost four thousand of the tally were leftover points from his earlier cultivation session, meaning he gained around 6,000 for forming the Dao Branch. The number of points gained from the breakthrough wasn’t the maximum possible, but it was clearly better than the average.

Some didn’t even gain 2,000 Contribution Points when forming a Dao Branch. This result was within Zac’s expectations as he’d already learned that Boundless Daos provided more Contribution Points in general. Daos within Heaven’s Path were more harmonized, while those who entered the boundless were more likely to be individualistic in nature.

Therefore, boundless breakthroughs had greater odds to include new insights for the Orom, which was why an unusually large part of the population of the Orom World walked the Boundless Path.

Zac stayed at the edge of the cultivation chamber until the time was up, using the immense energies to replenish his [Spiritual Void] and further stabilize his newly-formed Dao Branch. In fact, he saw some benefit to his Divine Cores as well, where they absorbed some of the energy and concepts in the golden waters.

It proved his previous notion was correct. He needed to find attuned cultivation grounds to improve his cores. Unfortunately, this golden water didn’t seem too useful for his soul, but there were all kinds of Life-or-Death attuned materials out there. He just needed to find the right ones to save years of arduous cultivation.

While making full use of the cave, Zac also went over the state of his body. He had to admit, things were better than expected. After being subjected to that horrifying torture, especially from the third blast, he expected his body would almost be in a crippled state. He was surprised to find that the damage was actually quite superficial.

It didn’t make sense.

He’d felt how his body was essentially being erased by the tribulation lightning, yet he was mostly fine. Certainly, he was absolutely covered in small scars, from his skin to his organs and his soul, but these wounds didn’t contain any lingering energy or Dao. It was nothing compared to the stubborn damage left behind when he formed the Chaos Patterns.

Come to think of it, he was pretty much fine when waking up after his previous breakthrough as well. This was completely different from the norm. Even the staunchest elite spoke with hushed tones when discussing the tribulation lightning, and most were left bedridden for decades after withstanding them.

In his case, he felt he’d be back in full form in a day or two, even quicker if he made use of one of the healing arrays. He didn’t delude himself into thinking he was uniquely talented or anything. This was thanks to something else.

“Void,” Zac muttered as he thought back to the bolts of lightning.

The purple lightning had been the absence of Dao taken form, an anti-Dao of sorts. How was this related to his Void Emperor bloodline? Was the Void it spoke of the Heavens themselves? Was that why his bloodline had taken such a leap forward last time his [Void Heart] swallowed tribulation lightning?

But then, how did Void Beasts fit into the picture? Why was their energy so useful for his bloodline? And why didn’t that ancient aura his Void Energy emitted feel like the tribulation lightning at all if they shared an origin? Zac shook his head. These answers were too far out of his reach.

But it did make him even more eager to find out more about that ancient era. About Karz and the Limitless Empire. He really needed to get his hands on some sort of manual to go with his bloodline. Right now, he was fumbling along, using the Remnants and random encounters to push his bloodline forward.

How few of his impurities he managed to burn away proved how little control Zac had over his bloodline. Zac bet that if he had a proper manual instead of the absurdly simplistic [Bloodline Resonance], he would have been able to really take advantage of the tribulations. More importantly, there was probably a limit to how far he could improve himself using such an unreliable strategy as random encounters.

Just like how the [Nine Reincarnations Manual] had started adding demands on comprehension at the third layer, he needed to better understand his bloodline if he wanted to keep evolving it. Perhaps, he would be able to search for some answers in the Million Gates Territory.

From what he’d heard, Mystic Realms and ancient detritus were sometimes spat out from those spatial rifts, containing remnants left behind by the Limitless Empire. Most of it was useless scraps, but some weren’t. The treasure that made the Void Priestess fight with her life on the line had appeared there.

Of course, Zac needed to get out of this place before he could start planning his next step.

Zac left the cultivation chamber the moment his token buzzed, afraid he’d get charged for another twelve hours if he loitered. From there, he returned to his cultivation cave, where he once more entered seclusion. This time, he didn’t spend any time on gaining levels or bathing in toxic mud.

Instead, he swapped between cultivating his soul and slowly integrating the Branch of the Kalpataru into his Evolutionary Stance. There were still eight months to the duel, and he wanted to spend as much time of that as possible in his undead form. To avoid getting bottlenecked later, he had to take the first steps with integrating his Life-attuned branch before that.

One week passed in this manner until he felt a thump in his chest. Zac was in the middle of a cultivation session for his soul, but he immediately cut it short. There was still an uncomfortable amount of impurities saturating his body, and the next few minutes were critical in allaying the situation.

The thud came from his [Void Heart], meaning it had finally finished processing the tribulation lightning. A moment later, it started to spit out one burst after another, each one filled with the promise of both pain and possibility. Last time, Zac hadn’t known what to expect, so he mostly let the tribulation lightning do its thing.

Now, he wanted to control the events and was elated to find it worked to some extent.

Thanks to [Void Heart]’s purification, the previously uncontainable lightning was far more malleable, and Zac pushed it through his body on a crusade of purification. The lightning still hurt like hell, but the agony wasn’t even at the level of the first tribulation bolt. It allowed him to maintain his concentration as he used massive amounts of Mental Energy to drag the lightning toward the thousands of spots of accumulated toxins.

With every heartbeat, hundreds of oily spots and stubborn imperfections were singed clear, leaving behind pure cells without any blemishes. This time around, his cells didn’t greedily swallow any lightning, and his [Force of the Void] remained locked at 50% capacity. It really looked like he had reached his limits for this Bloodline Talent, at least until the bloodline evolved.

That was fine with Zac, since it left him with more lightning to temper himself with. His mind was already drowned in a thunderous storm, and purple blasts hit his cores over and over. The numerous attuned cores had just made a full recovery two days ago, but they were already beset by another onslaught. Thankfully, Zac could tell that the bolts wouldn’t leave any lasting damage.

The previously mottled cores were fast regaining their luster as one bolt after another exploded against their surfaces. Not only that, but the energy they emitted started becoming increasingly condensed as the tribulation lightning left some of its essence behind, saving Zac even more time to reach the peak of the third reincarnation.

Unfortunately, nothing good lasts forever, and the bolts started to escape through his pores, dispersing into the environment. At the same time, both [Purity of the Void] and [Spiritual Void] absorbed the occasional arc of lightning, though they weren’t nearly as voracious as his cells had been the last time around.

The final arc of lightning escaped, leaving Zac covered in a new set of scars. Even if his scorched wounds looked a bit nasty, Zac felt great. It was almost felt like he’d been reborn, or at least returned to his prime condition. That oily feeling, like he hadn’t bathed for weeks, was finally gone.

The tribulation itself removed around 5% of his impurities at best, but this second baptism had removed at least 60% of the remaining impurities. That meant a third was still left behind, but there was still the second tribulation to deal with that. Seeing the result, Zac decided to not try to muck up his body any further.

He didn’t want any gunk remaining after his second tribulation. Not only would it hamper his energy circulation during his duel, but it was also high time he started to prepare for his next breakthrough—Hegemony. He didn’t want to stop at the Peak of E-grade for over a century before making his attempt at forming a Cultivator’s Core.

Soon enough, he would have spent ten years in the E-grade. While it wasn’t long, Zac was struggling to catch up with Leandra. Taking it slow and steady wouldn’t cut it. His initial plan had actually been to reach D-grade within 10 years, matching the one year it took to reach E-grade. Now, he knew that was insufficient to reach the accumulations he wanted.

His new deadline was twenty years at the most—the sooner the better. If he could push his Dao Branches to Middle proficiency within a few years, while also finding some inroads into properly forming a core that would work in his body, he would immediately crush his Perennial Vastness Token.

A few years was probably too short a time to reach the limits of the E-grade—Late-stage Branches and a thrice-reincarnated soul. But it ultimately didn’t matter. Those things weren’t something that couldn’t be accomplished after his breakthrough. They would simply make the process of forming his Cultivator’s Core easier, but he hoped he wouldn’t have to go that far to succeed with its formation.

Soon enough, another month had passed, and Zac had long adapted his Evolutionary Stance to make proper use of his new Dao Branch. The process was even smoother than he could have hoped for. It was like the two were meant for each other, effortlessly fusing into one. And they were.

Zac somewhat understood the reasoning behind Pavina’s suggestion to wait with his breakthrough, but only now did he witness just how spot-on her advice was. His technique paved the path for fusing his Dao and Path into one, removing the incongruities and forging everything into one coherent system. Well, almost coherent.

There was still one aspect that remained to be integrated for his triumvirate path to be perfected—the final Dao Branch.

By now, the foundations on his Draugr side were as stable as an impenetrable fortress, his accumulations even surpassing those that allowed him to form the Branch of the Kalpataru. It was with a steady heart Zac made his way toward the [Blackink Mountain], only making a short detour to pick up [Empyrean Aegis] at the local Nexus Node.

The quest for this defense was to gain two Dao Branches, and he wanted to cash in on the reward before forming his Deathly Dao Branch since he didn’t know if it could affect the nature of the skill. Having imprinted the new skill fractal, which was placed on back of his head of all places, he swapped back to his Draugr form and set off.

A few days later, he reached the cultivation grounds where he rented a middle-grade cave to match his previous breakthrough. Soon enough, Zac sat ensconced in the depths of Death, pondering his Dao and the road that led him here.

Just like with Life, Death had many faces and expressions, something Zac had become all-too-familiar with since the integration. In a sense, it was central to every cultivator’s struggle as they fought to cheat death and gain eternal life. Death became the ultimate adversary, always waiting to end their path. Death also became a close friend, following them throughout their journey. Only by walking at the edge of Death would a warrior reach the peak.

For some, especially in the Undead Empire, Death was also synonymous with war. It was destruction, the act of vanquishing your foe. It was a core component in the struggle so central to both the Heavens and the System. If Zac had been born Draugr rather than accidentally gaining this second identity, he would most likely have taken this path as well. Death through conquest.

For others, Death represented control and hierarchy. Both liches and necromancers walked this path, where their Death became their tool to gain minions. Then there were the hexmasters, the shamans, the poison masters, and various different cultivators who infused Death into their path. For them, Death was power—a primal force few could withstand.

For Zac, Death was stillness. The end of change and dominion over fate. It was a bridge toward eternity. His finding the Dao of Death had been a circuitous journey, far more accidental than that of Life. However, as the years passed, he finally started to assimilate it into his own. His Draugr side was no longer a persona, a skill to be used or power to be exploited.

The Draugr was him as much as his human side, and his desire to delve deeper into this aspect of the cosmic truths was just as real as his connection to Life. It all started with the Seed of Hardness, once meant to become the Fragment of the Shield. Instead, it came to represent the inviolability and inexorability of Death.

Next, came the Seed of Rot, born out of necessity and a sense of imbalance. It now represented the transition from life to death, from movement to stillness. After all, just like his Branch of the Kalpataru, his Dao was not a Dao of passive acceptance, even if it was centered around stillness. This was also Pavina’s first impartment to him, her display in the arena that showed how Death could be proactive.

The vision of the cursed lotus had fused Hardness and Rot into something more aligned with his path. Death was the ultimate cage that all beings railed against, like someone entombed against their will. Sealed in its heart was everlasting nothingness.

To cultivate was to struggle against fate, but Death was the ultimate judge of that struggle. By controlling Death, he was not just the arbiter of his enemies’ fate, but also his own. As their chapters ended, his own road would grow wider, reaching toward that lofty peak. That was his Path of Supremacy.

The cave rumbled as the truths within began to resonate with what was engraved in Zac’s heart, and he opened his abyssal eyes to welcome Death into his soul. He felt the withered tree rise from its Miasmic Core, and heard a spectral rattle from the hanging coffin as the Dao Avatar moved toward a central position in his aperture.

It had begun.

61

CULMINATION

Leyara passed through the barrier shielding the outer hall and was immediately greeted by a vast silence. Her steps, her breath, the basic sound of existence was swallowed by the Void, leaving only a blanket silence. It wasn’t uncomfortable—rather the opposite—like returning to the womb. Even her thoughts were being muted into a susurrus.

Her master would chide her for giving in to the nothingness, so Leyara soundlessly put her hands together in the Emptiness Mudra and channeled her cultivation technique. Her hazy cognition congealed, turning immovable, a polished stone sitting in the middle of a river. While she was part of the Void, she was distinct from it. Refined by it.

She walked inside, space and distance feeling indistinct because of the lack of sound to accompany her actions. She held onto her seal as she moved. Hundreds of inky black crystals floated in the air around her, each one silently humming in tune with the chamber. Today, a squall of Drikvirs had come over from the gardens, most likely attracted by the Void Priestess’ Dao.

They were like silken bands of light, flickering in and out of this dimension as they danced around the Void Stones, their source lighting up the usually shrouded hall. A smile spread across Leyara’s face as she saw the naughty little critters, but she didn’t dare wave one over out of fear she’d lose her concentration.

She wasn’t in any mood to face the Tranquil Wall and recite scriptures so soon after returning. She turned her gaze away, heading toward the exit at the other end. There would be time to play with the animals that made the Void Monastery their home later.

Her master sat at the same place she did when Leyara left on her mission. The same place she had been sitting since long before Leyara’s great-grandmother was born. Leyara could barely sense her master’s presence even when standing right in front of her, she was so utterly in tune with the Void.

Perala Janodrok wore the same long white robes as always, its engraved hems spreading out like a lotus flower around her sitting position. Her features were made indistinct by a veil of darkness that shrouded her, but Leyara knew she was beautiful, extremely so. Why else would those old toads be so obsessed with her? There were more female Monarchs to court if you just wanted a diplomatic alliance.

Seeing her master’s lonesome back as she gazed at the hovering scar in front of her made Leyara’s heart clench with sorrow. How long would she sit here in solitude, missing out on the joys of life? To guard a promise so long forgotten?

Leyara hurriedly wiped away the sorrowful expression as her master turned in her direction, and a radiant smile bloomed on her face instead.

“You’re back,” Perala smiled, waving her disciple to come closer.

The universe came crashing back with Perala’s voice, the white noise of reality suddenly so loud it was unbearable. But like a rising tide, the stillness returned the moment Perala was finished speaking. Her voice was the Void, and when it existed, the surrounding stillness could not. How would a river exist in the ocean?

“You have made progress in your comprehension.”

Leyara opened her mouth with expectation, but only silence emerged from her throat, her words unable to take shape. Her face scrunched up with annoyance before she jumped into her master’s embrace.

“It is still too early for you to break the Void,” Perala said with a shake of her head as she caressed Leyara’s head, her smile slowly fading. “Work hard. We are entering a turbulent age.”

‘I think I’m getting closer,’ Leyara answered in her mind. ‘I felt something condense.’

“I’m sure,” Perala nodded as Leyara sat down in front of her. “How was it?”

‘Dalos performed the 81 rites, but there was no response. We traveled the planes for over a year, but there were no clues to the disturbance. If the anomalies are related to the Void Star itself, it is hidden well. Or at least beyond our capabilities to understand,’ Leyara conveyed with a shake of her head. ‘The only sign of abnormalities was the unusual number of beasts.’

“Tides are forming?” Perala hummed, not looking too bothered.

Leyara shrugged in response, unsure. The number of beasts was a bit more than usual, but it was not yet at the level of a tide. And even if one emerged, what of it? They arrived every few centuries as the population strove to purify their bloodlines. It was a win-win situation, where the beasts rid themselves of weakness and the monastery’s subordinate factions gained some wealth and experience.

“What about you? What did your heart say?” Perala asked.

Leyara hesitated to answer. She had felt something, but was afraid she’d imagined it.

“Do not doubt your instincts, child. Your ability in this regard is unique, even surpassing what I am capable of,” Perala said.

‘It felt happy,’ Leyara said. ‘Expectant.’

“Happy and expectant?” Perala slowly muttered, her eyes giving no clue what she was thinking. “I understand. How is your progress?”

‘I managed to form my second Dao Branch during the mission,’ Leyara grinned.

“Good, child. Your comprehension has always been at the forefront in this sector,” Perala smiled. “Unfortunately, you are a bit inexperienced in other aspects, and I cannot help but worry. I have set up a training session for you. To shore up your foundations and prepare yourself. You need to reach Hegemony within fifteen years.”

‘Fifteen years?’ Leyara repeated with confusion before her eyes widened in understanding. ‘We’re really joining?’

“In some matters, we cannot maintain neutrality. This is one of them,” Perala nodded.

‘Have they discovered something?’ Leyara asked with a pang of worry.

“From the looks of it… Our enemies are walking the unorthodox path. Not one or two factions, but the whole army,” Perala sighed. “The war will be brutal beyond compare.”

‘A dark sector!’ Leyara asked, shuddering with horror.

“It might be a false alarm. We will find out more over the coming years,” Perala said. “What will be, will be. Go find Mravla, she will impart you with the art of command over the next year.”

Leyara nodded with a frown as she stood, any thought of playing around in the gardens forgotten as she hurried toward Mravla’s Cloister. The situation didn’t sound so grave from the rumors she’d heard. Just some scuffles in the lawless sector. But for her master to act, the situation must be extremely serious, and she wasn’t strong enough to protect anything as she was.

Perala saw her disciple exit the suppressive buffer before turning back toward the hovering scar.

“First the Space Gate, now you. Is it connected?” Perala sighed as she grasped the ancient token hanging around her neck. “Million Gates… Is it really there?”

* * *

The bristled lizard released one last sorrowful wail as it helplessly watched the axe descend, but its lamentations were cut short as Zac’s strike cut through its thick skull and extinguished its soul with one practiced motion. A small sputter of energy entered his body as the local tyrant of the fifth band fell, leaving Zac panting and ravenously hungry after fighting for over an hour to take down this stubborn animal.

Still, the hunger barely registered as he eagerly opened his Quest Screen.

[Desperation’s End (Class): Extinguish one million souls. Reward: Desperation’s End Skill (1,000,000/1,000,000) COMPLETE]

It had taken more than four years, most of which had been spent ceaselessly fighting in the Wilderness, but he finally made it. One million souls had been extinguished, turning Zac into what could best be described as a walking calamity to the beasts that made this place their home.

Luckily, even the beasts in the first band qualified for the quest, allowing him to progress tens of thousands of kills a day toward the end as he acquainted himself with his latest Dao Branch. Over four months had passed since he returned to the Wilderness, and he started right at the beginning. For over twenty-two hours a day, he fought in an almost macabre dance with Death.

Zac had spent one month in the first band, getting used to his new Dao Branch. After that, he pushed forward, never stopping until he reached the middle reaches of the fifth band. He couldn’t go much farther though. Having a powerful technique wasn’t enough. Those who got this far generally had Late Dao Branches or higher.

Some even reached the next stage of the ladder, completely eclipsing his own accomplishments. Technique wasn’t enough, you needed a more powerful base to use it with, just like Pavina had said. You might be able to walk the whole Wilderness if you mastered the Conception Stage of technique, but only with the caveat that you were also a Monarch.

Improving his technique had nearly allowed Zac to make the impossible possible in the Wilderness, but it could only take him so far. Besides, the benefits were amplified here in the Wilderness where he was only fighting Middle E-grade beasts. He would find more of a challenge than just an attribute disadvantage if he entered the lawless sector of the fifth band, but he didn’t dare.

Even if sparring against those powerhouses who walked the path of slaughter would be far more efficient, he didn’t dare do so right now. The deadline of his duel was getting close, and he couldn’t allow himself to be maimed by someone and saddled with hard-to-cleanse invasive Daos.

It was time to head back.

Leaving wasn’t just a matter of ability. There wasn’t much of a purpose in going all out and forcing his way deeper into the Wilderness. While the animals here were extremely powerful, it was only in comparison to his limited state. Without the prison brand and Zac avoiding using his bloodline, he would be able to kill thousands of lizards like this without breaking a sweat.

Zac wasn’t really putting it all on the line here, and so he wasn’t actually finding any new truths in the heat of battle. Most of his gains were ultimately based on his desperate struggles in the Twilight Ocean. The Orom World had given him an opportunity to better understand what he learned and experienced since the integration, and then turn it into something useful.

But he had squeezed his accumulated inspiration to the limit already, and he could go no further down his road this way. Meaning the Orom World had reached its limits on what it could provide. It really was time to leave. Not just the Wilderness, but the Orom World itself.

Zac started making his way toward the closest teleportation exit as he pondered on his path. He had far surpassed the bare minimum Kaldor mentioned, but that didn’t mean he could expect an easy fight. He opened his Dao Screen to look at his Daos, hoping the lines of text would lead to some new epiphany.

Branch of the Pale Seal (Early): All attributes +50, Strength +300, Endurance +2250, Vitality +800, Intelligence +50, Wisdom +250. Effectiveness of Endurance +25%

Zac had been just as befuddled when he saw his newest Dao Branch as when he formed the Branch of the Kalpataru. Thankfully, he had eventually figured out the origin of the name. The Seven Seals might not be commonly known, but the representation of the first four was famous even in popular culture—the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

As for the Pale Seal, it had to be referring to the fourth of the Seven Seals.

The fourth seal was aptly the one that released Death, who would plague the Earth with war and famine. At first, Zac had been a bit confused, since the imagery seemed a bit at odds with his Dao, until he understood there were two parts to the simile. The first component was naturally Death, the thing hidden inside the seal.

Secondly, it was the seal itself, just like how his Fragment of the Coffin worked—hardness containing rot. The seal was clearly sturdy beyond compare since it was able to restrain Death itself until it was released. This restraining power was central to his path and his technique. Finally, the Dao pointed toward the next stage of this peak—the seventh seal. When the seventh seal broke, even the Heavens would be silenced as the end of days arrived. The Apocalypse.

Oblivion.

The gain in attributes mirrored his Branch of the Kalpataru perfectly, which wasn’t much of a surprise considering the two were one-half of a whole. The difference was that his Life-attuned branch focused on Vitality and provided Dexterity to represent the changing nature in Evolutionary Stance, while the Branch of the Pale Seal provided Strength and focused Endurance.

This time, he’d lost a bit of Intelligence to reach this balanced state, but it wasn’t like Zac was using that attribute too much anyway.

Zac appeared in Samsara’s Edge two days later, and set course for Kaldor’s castle. Everything that needed to be dealt with had been accomplished. His impurities had been purified, his Daos and techniques were stable. Entering seclusion for the last three months wouldn’t bring any benefit.

It would only rob him of his momentum, so Zac chose to strike while the iron was hot. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t afraid, but there was also a part of him that was burning with excitement. The opportunity to duel with a master at the precipice of confirming his Dao, to experience the vantage of a peak expert from an A-grade faction.

That kind of opportunity simply didn’t exist in the Zecia Sector.

So, it was with a somewhat tumultuous heart he stepped through the gates of the Izh’Rak Reaver’s castle.

“You’re early,” Kaldor’s voice echoed out through the castle, and Zac could actually hear an unmistakable tinge of excitement to match his own.

“It was time,” Zac said with a serious expression.

“Interesting, interesting,” a gruff laugh followed as the gates slowly opened.

Out from the darkness, Kaldor walked, and it felt like the whole Orom World trembled from his mere presence. The prison brand was obviously unable to restrain the grandeur of this warrior’s path, and Zac felt like he had been punched in his gut by the unmasked aggression. This was a true warrior, one born through battle and hardships, there were no two ways about it.

Kaldor stood around two meters tall, just like Zac, but Kaldor’s real height should be between three and five meters. He was simply restrained by the spatial manipulations of the Orom. Come to think of it, Three Virtues was the only one whose size was different from the norm. Why hadn’t Zac reflected on that before? Was it yet another mental manipulation from the monk’s side?

Zac shook his head, returning his focus to his adversary. His build was slim, almost emaciated, but it emitted a supremely brutal pressure. Greatest’s blood-drenched aura was just a shadow of what Zac felt right now, and Zac’s own killing intent was nothing but a drop in the ocean. Kaldor’s build might be scrawny for a human, but Kaldor definitely didn’t look human.

After all, he was a skeleton.

More specifically, Kaldor looked like he wore full-body bone armor beneath a tattered vest and loose-fitting pants. However, those bones weren’t a Spirit Tool or forged equipment. They were Kaldor’s true exoskeleton, a unique feature of the Reavers. Not a single inch of his flesh was exposed, not even his eyes. Not that Izh’Rak Reavers had eyes in the same sense as humans did.

Three gemlike bones were embedded in his skull, one in the middle of his forehead and two almost at the edges of his face, forming a wide triangle that provided surround-vision from what he’d heard. In addition, there were just two small holes for a nose and a thin unmoving line for a mouth.

This odd appearance only scratched the surface of the Reavers. For example, while Reavers had flesh, they didn’t have organs. They had muscle and sinew. Supremely condensed muscles that turned them into unstoppable forces of nature.

They didn’t even have brains, as their consciousness was spread through their bones rather than in their head. Thousands upon thousands of small runes covered Kaldor’s skull and arms, and Zac knew that the same was true for his whole body. It wasn’t something Kaldor had done himself, but rather a natural progression of their bodies.

You could say that the warlike Reavers were all body cultivators, but they cultivated their bones rather than their flesh. They needed no Spirit Tools or defensive equipment. They were the equipment. Their bones surpassed almost anything at their grade in durability thanks to their unique body tempering arts, making them extremely difficult to kill.

The bones also gained various abilities as their ranks grew. At D-grade, for example, they finally awakened their Warbones, which Kaldor thankfully wouldn’t use in this duel. It was an inherent transformation ability that was a mix of skills like [Vanguard of Undeath] and the activation of War Regalia, the energy-consuming equipment only Hegemons and higher could use.

Durable, powerful, and bloodthirsty. The war-hungry armies of the Izh’Rak Reavers were the scourge of the neighboring empires of the Undead Empire.

In a sense, the Izh’Rak Reavers seemed to be more in line with Zac’s own build than Draugr were, but he was still thankful he’d been implanted with Draugr genes over Reaver genes. He felt that the difference between a being that was something like a mix of insect and skeleton and a human was too great a bridge to pass.

Zac tried to figure out what kind of technique Kaldor used, but his lazy stance gave no indication of what to expect. This was the one thing Pavina refused to help with, and no one else seemed to know either. Perhaps they feared to spread Kaldor’s secrets, considering he held the right to kill people in the Orom World.

“Well then,” Kaldor said as his mouth and nose disappeared, leaving a smooth surface without any weakness. “Show me why you’re worthy of the Path of Oblivion.”

62

PATH OF OBLIVION

“Worthy of the Path of Oblivion? What does that mean?” Zac asked, but the only response he got was a deafening scream of danger and an alabaster fist ripping the air apart in its approach for Zac’s left temple.

Just a fraction of a second later, the crash of stone tiles breaking resounded, along with Kaldor lunging toward him, finally catching up. The fist seemed straightforward, but it exerted the pressure of a whole world collapsing in on him. Was it Kaldor’s technique or was it the inherent power of a warrior with a perfected inner world? Zac couldn’t tell.

Zac’s instincts kicked in, and he leaned into the punch as he pivoted, countering with an axe swing of his own as the chains on back his began their dance of death. But it almost felt like he’d been transported back to his first day in the Orom World where Travo Raso put him in his place.

His perfected movements were now as clumsy as when he first arrived, and time slowed to a crawl as the fist grew closer and closer. Zac believed he’d timed it perfectly, and confirmed that Kaldor restrained his aura down to 1,000 attribute points, yet his calculations were way off. His instincts told him that insisting on his current route would only end with his skull being cracked like an egg, when it should have led to an equal exchange of strikes that would have won him the bet.

He trusted his instincts.

Even if Death couldn’t be avoided forever, it could be delayed. He had been too impatient and geared up, hoping to end the fight in an instant in a surprise upset. Now, Zac had to make a small sacrifice to not be immediately taken out of commission. His muscles screamed in protest as he forcibly stopped his swing while changing his pivot to raise his arm to block.

A rapid clashing of chains pushed two of the links between Kaldor’s fist and Zac’s bicep as well, narrowly allowing him to divert the force even further. But suddenly, the sense of danger resurged with refound urgency. What should have been a light graze had somehow turned into a deadly assault, once more subverting Zac’s understanding.

Two chains slammed into the ground, pushing Zac backward over ten meters as he absorbed the force of Kaldor’s punch. A sheen of sweat lacquered his back, and he looked at the Reaver with surprise. Without any facial features, Zac couldn’t glean anything about Kaldor’s mood, giving Zac the impression he was fighting some sort of emotionless robot.

In a sense, it almost seemed like he was fighting a Technocrat for a moment there, considering he hadn’t sensed any emanations of Dao at all from that opening salvo. Kaldor somehow tricked Zac’s mind twice without using any of his insights to empower his strikes.

“Not completely hopeless,” Kaldor grunted, his voice now muffled as though he were speaking into a can. “You want answers? Win the bet first.”

Zac wasted no more effort on talks or contemplation, and completely melded with his path. His new Dao Avatar radiated unquestionable finality as it released dense black tendrils of Pure Death. It no longer looked like the dead tree with a hanging coffin. Zac now understood that imagery had been partly a crutch, where he based his understanding of Death on his understanding of Life.

But now that he’d stepped onto the Path of Pure Death, the two conceptualizations had further diverged. The Dao Avatar appeared in the form of an Iron Maiden, with some differences from the grotesque medieval torture device. Instead of spikes, the insides were lined with chains, judging by the endless rattling of links heard from within.

Also, instead of a tormented face at the top, there was just a pitch-black halo, like a black hole leading into the abyss. Just like the Kalpataru’s vines rustling formed a song of unfettered life, the rustling chains of the Iron Maiden formed a tune of inescapable death. However, while their portents might seem dour, Zac felt a sense of comfort hearing them. It was stability, it was peace.

Just like the Branch of the Pale Seal had woken up, so had the miniature version of himself, the Dao Avatar for his Branch of the War Axe. No longer did it switch between his two races. It had solidly become Draugr as it wielded the axe of chains, giving off the aura of a grim reaper. Its strikes were death incarnate, repressing and unyielding.

The tendrils of death were immediately attracted by the display, forming a dour shroud that almost looked like the chains on the real Zac’s back. As his avatar moved, so did Zac, the aura around him shifting into one of utter inexorability. There was nothing else on his mind any longer, only the battle.

Another snort echoed out from within Kaldor’s skull as he shot forward, but Zac wouldn’t allow himself to be ambushed again. The chains formed an outer perimeter as over a million deaths showed the way. The short breather allowed Zac to figure out the truth. The situation had felt similar to when he was first bested by Travo Raso, but the circumstances weren’t the same.

Instead of vastly surpassing Zac’s skill level and fundamentals, the Reaver was rather using extremely intricate footwork that messed with Zac’s perception.

When it looked like Kaldor stepped to the right, he was actually moving left, and vice versa. The minute cues for momentum and intent that Zac’s instincts based themselves on turned into traps. Nothing was as it seemed, where slowing down could mean speeding up, or some other action altogether.

It was an extremely refined method that required not only exquisite control over your body, but also a meticulous understanding of the mind. You needed to perfectly grasp what drove an opponent’s actions to so perfectly trick the instincts that had been forged through thousands of battles. It was not something Zac could do at all, at least not against someone who had experience with life-and-death struggles.

Ultimately it didn’t matter. It was just another attempt to escape the inevitable.

There was no worth in analyzing the disconnect between the Izh’Rak Reaver’s gruff and straightforward persona with this kind of refined fighting style. He might be trying to teach through battle or it might be a natural expression of someone so far ahead on the road of cultivation. Zac only needed to focus on his own path—to restrain, to whittle down, to deliver death.

The rattling of links echoed through the courtyard as the four chains spun their web of death, their undulations restricting Kaldor’s options to advance. It wouldn’t help even if Kaldor’s techniques made him unpredictable, as long as Zac controlled all the avenues to choose from. However, a Monarch was not so easily contained, and Kaldor chose the most straightforward solution. To break the pattern and force open a path.

Kaldor shifted, placing him in a precarious position right among the chains, but Zac didn’t have time to seize any advantage before the Reaver unleashed an extremely precise combination of a punch and roundhouse kick. A shockwave rocked the surroundings as the chains became entangled in an unproductive mess.

Zac’s patterns weren’t airtight, but it had to have taken a terrifying ability to so utterly expose the weaknesses. However, just as Kaldor dealt with the chains, a gleaming edge was almost upon his head. It was Zac who made his move while Kaldor had his hands full, and his axehead radiated a deathly luster as it closed in on its target.

A thin forearm appeared out of nowhere as Kaldor twisted his torso, using his other leg as a pivot. Zac’s axe slammed into Kaldor’s arm, and a painful rebound shocked his own wrist while not so much as a mark was left behind on Kaldor’s bones. No one said anything after the exchange. They both knew this didn’t count as a hit.

Kaldor had been fully prepared to block the strike, and he used his forearm as a shield in place of an actual weapon. Even if the Reaver hadn’t said it outright, Zac was aware he had to land a true hit that the Monarch couldn’t avoid. After the initial exchange, Zac knew things wouldn’t be over so easily.

Zac was still a bit surprised to see that his Branch-infused swing didn’t push the Reaver off-balance, even if he was bent at a ninety degree angle and used only one leg for balance. The other leg was still in the middle of the previous kick, and Zac felt a pang of danger as the kick somehow gained momentum by transferring the force of Zac’s strike.

Death didn’t back down or cower, so force met with force as Zac stayed true to his path. The chains had already untangled thanks to Zac buying some time, and they resumed harassing the Reaver while Zac kept up his pressure. Kaldor wasn’t giving an inch either. He may as well of had three heads and six arms, continuously parrying swings or disrupting the chain formations.

It was an odd feeling, where Kaldor was simultaneously stronger and weaker compared to Pavina. He was stronger in his understanding of rhythm, of making the most of simple timing. His control was appallingly accurate, where Kaldor kept forcing advantages by manipulating Zac’s trajectories and strikes by almost unnoticeable degrees.

These small differences only cost Zac fractions of seconds, while they gave Kaldor the breathing room he needed to shift the rhythm and avoid being put on a defensive. However, his techniques were inferior to Pavina’s due to restricting himself to concepts limited at the level of fragments. After having battled Pavina so many times, Zac felt the attacks were almost simplistic after gaining some understanding of what Kaldor was doing.

This was the key to victory, and Zac took full advantage, using both his Dao Branches in his strikes and as a basis for his Inexorable Stance. Every attack he performed contained the inevitable nature of Death, every movement was like another layer of choking constriction that would eventually claim its prize.

Kaldor had already turned into an alabaster blur as he fended off chains and swings from every direction, though Zac could tell death was slowly creeping closer. In the beginning, Kaldor’s unpredictable nature repeatedly disrupted Zac’s rhythm, but the Reaver was increasingly moving in accordance with Zac’s own Dao.

Zac’s axe descended, and Kaldor once more avoided the strike with a hair’s breadth, no longer able to afford himself inches of leeway. Still, their battle had become akin to a chess game nearing its end. Even if there were still a few hundred moves that needed to be performed, the game should end in Zac’s favor unless he committed a blunder.

Fetters clanked, and the hollow calls of sharp metal colliding with bone formed a song of cessation as the two combatants moved toward the inevitable. Still, Zac didn’t dare let down his guard, and he entered a transcendent state where he was one with his path, not letting any emotions or distractions lead him astray.

Kaldor was aware of the conundrum, though no matter how he fought, he couldn’t break free, restrained by not only Zac’s technique, but more so by the rules of engagement. Zac had already reached the level required to contend in this duel when he defeated Olgoroth. Since then, he’d made some massive improvements, turning a life-and-death struggle into a passable trial just like he’d planned.

However, Zac suddenly got a sinking feeling as the refined technique of Kaldor got more rugged, more brutal, and a dense red haze seeped out from his body. Congealed killing intent. Luckily, Kaldor’s time was running out, and Zac’s work was reaching fruition. The Reaver had been pushed off-balance by a powerful swing, and the four chains lunged.

Both hands were temporarily bound just as Zac’s axe shot forward, aiming straight for the Reaver’s chest. The opening had finally presented itself after hundreds of exchanges. Death had come to collect. However, just as Zac was about to checkmate the Reaver in this meticulously planned game of his, Kaldor did the one thing that would prevent a victory.

He flipped the whole table.

The indistinct steam oozing out of the Reaver’s bones suddenly moved, transforming into an unrecognizable seal beneath Kaldor’s right foot just as he stomped down. Zac’s chains were completely disrupted and lost their grip, while Zac himself was once more flung away.

“Good, good!” Kaldor growled, his form barely visible in the thickening mist. “You didn’t disappoint me. To think you managed to push me this far. But it’s not enough. Not enough! Show me your Path. Show me Carnage!”

“Are you breaking the agreement?” Zac frowned as he steadied himself.

“Breaking what? This is just killing intent, the mark of a warrior,” Kaldor laughed. “I never used a skill! How did I cheat? How!”

Zac looked at the skeleton with wide eyes, once more lamenting that most of the old monsters he’d encountered shared one common trait—shamelessness. Was that a core component required to reach the peak of cultivation, to blatantly twist the situation into one’s favor, forgoing any sense of dignity?

Certainly, it hadn’t been explicitly stated, but using the killing intent of a Peak Monarch was overstepping the bounds of the duel. That strike had been decidedly more deadly than anything that could be dished out with Peak Fragments. He had even felt huge pressure when using his Dao Branches.

It was the first time Zac had seen killing intent be weaponized to this degree. Zac himself had used it a few times before to suppress or even knock out weaker enemies, but that method was extremely crude compared to what Kaldor had done. The skeleton actually controlled the intent, then turned it into what looked like an array to amplify his power.

“Are you going back on your word?” Zac repeated.

He immediately got his response as Kaldor rushed forward, his killing intent on full and unabashed display. Zac only hesitated for an instant before he moved to meet the charge. He didn’t know if Kaldor was losing control due to battle lust, as Reavers were reportedly wont to do, or if he wanted to push Zac a bit further to test him.

If it was the former, Zac could back off and return when Kaldor’s head had cooled down. Since Zac would have won with that final strike if not for the interruption, Kaldor would probably hand him the Remnant without complaint. However, if it was the latter, Zac felt giving up might cost him his chance to get the splinter. Kaldor had made it clear; he had no love for cowards.

For now, Zac would keep going a bit longer since he hadn’t reached his limits. Kaldor no longer bothered to rely on finesse, and Zac’s instincts told him that had never been the skeleton’s true path. It was painfully obvious as the Reaver clawed at him with wild abandon, his fingers glowing red.

Zac countered with a swing of his own, but even death was rebuffed by the insatiable will contained in Kaldor’s attack. Zac was pushed back a step, then immediately adapted and lunged for another strike. With unprecedented focus, Zac restarted his stance, calming his mind. Death couldn’t be impatient, it couldn’t be swayed by outside events.

It was steady, intractable. And if it failed, it was only a temporary defeat. Death would win out in the end—no one could escape. But it quickly started to feel like Zac was trying to contain an enraged Barghest with a prison made of twigs. Kaldor’s punches were simpler compared to before, but they contained an indomitability that broke Zac’s Dao.

The Reaver’s strikes ignored everything as they went in for a kill. Technically, it should have meant leaving his body with numerous openings, but Kaldor kept unleashing those red arrays with his fists, feet, knees, and elbows in a furious barrage.

Every time their attacks collided, Zac was practically rebuffed by an army of battle-hardened veterans, where their wills had been turned into a power of faith. Zac tried to regain control, only to repeatedly find his technique unable to withstand this kind of power. It was undying, everlasting, a true manifestation of the Dao of Conflict.

The strikes put Zac under a kind of pressure he hadn’t felt since entering the Orom World, where every strike of Kaldor’s carried the threat of death. The whole courtyard was drowned in it, pushing Zac’s nerves to a breaking point. Even Zac’s vision started to blur, like he was being dragged down into Kaldor’s madness.

No matter what the Reaver was planning, one thing was clear. The killing intent was all-too-real, and every single strike was aimed at Zac’s vitals with the intent to kill. If one of those array-empowered strikes was allowed to hit his body without its force dispersed, his Duplicity Core wouldn’t be able to fake his death and save him.

Zac briefly considered giving up on his chains, fully concentrating on his axework to focus his strength. However, he rejected the idea, choosing to trust what he had built over these past four years. Part of him wanted to discard it all now that he finally encountered something that cleanly suppressed his Inexorable Stance. When real stakes were at play.

But his path wasn’t a lie. It had led him through insurmountable odds, and it would take him through this as well. The clamoring calls of the illusory war hidden in Kaldor’s bloodlust faded away as Zac’s abyssal eyes stared straight into Kaldor’s soul. He advanced again, and something shifted as his soul and body melded into one, where his path filled his very essence with enduring purpose.

He was Inexorable.

63

HARMONY

Not once since stepping into the Integration Stage over half a year ago had Zac felt this in tune with his creation, where he and his Dao were on track for becoming one and the same. The Inexorable Stance was no longer just an extension of his will, it melded with his whole body. He’d turned into an immovable fixture in the midst of Kaldor’s madness, an island of death that the warriors born from the Reaver’s killing intent couldn’t breach.

At first, Zac wondered if he had somehow leapfrogged a whole level and stepped into the Conception Stage, but he was overestimating himself. Even Monarchs who had studied their Daos and techniques for eons were hard-pressed to ever reach that level of technique, and it was much too early for Zac to take that step.

Neither was his state the result of deepening his foundations in the Integration Stage. Zac could tell he’d still only just begun his work on his integration. The mysterious sense of unity came from somewhere else, from something Pavina hadn’t prepared him for—his soul.

More specifically, it was thanks to the skeletal framework he set up for the [Thousand Lights Avatar].

His own movements and that of his Dao Avatars were almost in sync as Zac fended off the mad assault of his skeletal adversary. When he swung his training axe, so did the avatar swing his chained axe of death. When Zac manipulated the chain formation erected with [Chainbox], so did the black tendrils from his Branch of the Pale Seal dance in his Soul Aperture.

With Zac being the target of an unprecedented wave of killing intent and pressure, he had been pushed to the limits to make the most of his technique. The fluctuations and concepts generated by his Dao Avatars had grown stronger than ever and were further empowered by Zac opening his [Spiritual Void]. Unknowingly, this power had then spread into the thin strands of Mental Energy Zac started drawing along his skeleton.

That was the first and easiest step of the [Thousand Lights Avatar]—to set up a framework to build upon as he progressed. The method suggested the original user, the Eidolon, to form it based on their favorite appearance. Since Zac wasn’t an amorphous wraith, he’d chosen to form the frame based on his skeletal structure.

From there, he would gradually fill out his body, from copying pathways to flesh and muscle until his body was filled by a secondary soul of sorts. This initial step hadn’t taken too much work, allowing him to mostly complete it while resting. Most of the work came from engraving a set of patterns that prevented the Mental Energy from immediately dispersing.

The initial step might have been straightforward, but it hadn’t brought him any benefits either. Zac had tried to make use of his nascent avatar in the Wilderness, both by instilling it with Dao and trying to use it to push his Mental Energy into his skills quicker. Neither really worked. It was more efficient to infuse his muscles with his Dao if he wanted to empower his body, and the pathways were much-too-thin to carry the required amount of Mental Energy to bolster a skill with a Dao Branch.

Now, this weak framework had become some sort of bridge, improving the harmony between himself and his Dao Avatar. It blurred the lines between corporeal and spiritual, where it all moved toward a singular unity. It was still far from perfect, but it made his stance more natural, putting not only his mind but his whole body in the right state.

Zac had no idea this kind of thing was possible. Pavina didn’t cultivate her soul at all, apart from using some sort of warrior method that passively strengthened its defenses over time. Thus, she had never mentioned that soul and technique could empower each other. If anything, those who had powerful souls and thus high control rather focused on intent, where cultivators integrated their path with their weapons or spells rather than their technique.

This was great news for Zac, who hadn’t been able to make a lot of use of his extraordinary soul except for withstanding the Remnants and performing his crude version of Dao Braiding. The former was a stopgap to avoid going insane, and the latter was nothing special. His braiding was even worse than what some F-grade talents could perform.

The Remnants were providing a powerful hidden ace while also helping cultivate his soul, but Zac was ultimately receiving somewhat limited returns from cultivating his soul even if it was the most time-consuming aspect of his path. He had previously hoped on making use of his soul cultivation to form axe intent or some technique-based intents like Evolutionary Intent.

Zac figured that between the crystallization of his path, his rapidly improving technique, and his powerful soul, he might be able to add intent to his repertoire, but he had been utterly incapable of forming even a wisp of intent. Unfortunately, it looked like intent required affinity that would allow him to better control the insights in his Daos.

The failure had made him uncertain about persisting with his soul cultivation beyond what was necessary for the Remnants, since those years would be better spent on exploring Mystic Realms, battling to hone his Dao and techniques or refining his skills. Even some side-professions seemed more efficient for his goal of catching up to his mother and saving Kenzie before it was too late.

However, his current state showed him a new direction.

It was still just a shadow of a path, but it brimmed with possibility. To fuse his soul and link it with his Dao Avatars, essentially a fusion between Man and Heaven. This would be a system of his own creation, something that took advantage of both his refined soul and talent for improving his technique.

A wailing scream of danger dragged Zac out of his thoughts, but it was too late. He’d messed up, allowing himself to be consumed by his discovery in a fight that allowed for no distractions. A fist hidden behind a glaring-red array was closing in on his heart, and it was too late to dodge. Zac could only minimize the damage, and he furiously spun his torso as his chains pulled the attack off-mark.

Zac’s vision turned white with pain from having a part of his lungs and ribcage disintegrated as Kaldor’s fist grazed his torso. If he had been just a heartbeat slower, Kaldor’s attack would have hit him square in his chest, destroying his heart and most likely shattering his whole upper torso.

There was no longer any doubt in Zac’s mind about the veracity behind the intent within Kaldor’s punches. The killing intent was real, and if Zac slipped up, he would get himself killed. The wound in his side dripped with ichor, but his powerful durability was thankfully coming in handy as the bleeding stopped almost immediately without even using a skill.

Still, Zac wouldn’t be able to keep going much longer. It wasn’t the wound. This was nothing compared to some things he’d been through. The real problem was that Kaldor was still ramping up. With every clash, Kaldor’s momentum increased, and the dense haze of bloodlust grew thicker.

Zac was struggling to regain control of the fight, but even with his latest breakthrough, he’d only gone from being the weaker side to barely hanging on. It didn’t matter if Kaldor was only relying on insights at the level of Peak Fragments. The condensed bloodlust more than made up for the lacking foundation. If things kept going, there was only one outcome.

Death.

Over and over, Zac rallied, putting everything he learned to use. His whole body was becoming one with his Dao Branches, and every movement was in accordance with his path. Yet a second wound soon joined the first, and then a third. The only thing Zac had gained from taking those terrifying punches was a short breather, but Kaldor soon snatched back this advantage with his unrelenting assault.

Pain racked Zac’s body, the whole world a hazy red as Zac desperately held on, but those three shimmering aquamarine lights from Kaldor’s skull started to look like the light at the end of the tunnel. The suppression was complete and suffocating, with Zac barely clinging on to life through his mastery of death.

It was time to disengage.

Kaldor had gone far beyond the agreement of the duel, and Zac had already gained an epiphany in the heat of battle. If Zac kept pushing it, he would eventually fail to turn these deadly strikes into glancing blows. There was no point in persisting in this sham of a trial.

However, just as Zac was about to step back, even sacrificing [Chainbox] to delay Kaldor if needed, he felt a terrifying energy congeal right behind his head. He was forced to lunge forward to avoid a huge red brand that appeared in the air, the first time those arrays didn’t form attached to Kaldor’s limbs.

The brand erupted, ripping space apart before releasing a tumultuous shockwave. If Zac had retreated into that thing, his head would have been blown right off. The scene thoroughly infuriated Zac. The dark swirls of Oblivion gathered in his mind as he readied himself to fight fire with fire.

But it took time forming even the smallest of Annihilation Spheres, and the detonation had pushed Zac right into Kaldor’s waiting arms. Zac desperately swung his axe to force the Reaver into the defensive, but another large array appeared like a shield while a killing strike continued toward Zac unimpeded. There was just no time, and Zac went with the only solution he could think of.

The red haze dispersed within a meter and a half from Zac, and Kaldor’s two arrays sputtered and died out. The churning Daos in Kaldor’s body had been muted as well according to Zac’s [Cosmic Gaze], and the skeleton stopped in his tracks.

Zac saw his opportunity, and he immediately gave up on activating [Abyssal Phase] with Void Energy. Instead, he slightly altered the trajectory of his axe, passing right through the spot once guarded by the sanguine barrier. At the same time, Zac used all four chains to delay Kaldor from resetting his punch, which was no longer powered by his killing intent.

One attack sped up while one slowed down.

Crackling sounds echoed out as fetters snapped, but they were joined by a blissful clang as Zac’s axehead slammed straight into Kaldor’s chest, prompting sparks to fly. The strike contained everything Zac had to give, but the exoskeleton was just too hard. Not even a scratch was left on its alabaster surface, yet it almost felt like Zac’s wrist would snap from the rebound.

Zac didn’t fight the powerful counterforce and instead used it, along with Kaldor’s delayed punch, to create a ten-meter distance between them. Kaldor didn’t move after the exchange, and the red haze around him slowly dissipated as the two combatants stared at each other in silence. One silent and brooding, the other panting and covered in wounds and black ichor.

“It’s my victory,” both concluded.

“Your victory? Have you lost your mind?” Zac swore, losing all decorum as another wave of anger raged in his chest. “There’s a limit to how shameless you can be.”

The Reaver was already cheating by using extremely refined Arrays in this duel, both empowering his strikes and using them like actual skills. Even then, Zac had completed his task and landed a hit, only to hear he lost? Had Kaldor ever planned to give him the splinter? Or had he become obsessed with it, wanting to keep it for his own?

“You have guts, kid, talking to me like that,” Kaldor snorted as the last of the red haze reentered his bones. “This is obviously my victory, with you using that weird skill.”

“What skill?” Zac countered. “I never used a skill. It’s my Draugr bloodline, and you never said anything about those.”

“Little bastard, you think you’re the first Draugr I’ve met? Since when did your kind have that kind of Bloodline Talent?”

“Go visit the Abyssal Shores if you’re curious.” Zac shrugged as he ate a healing pill, still angry with the shameless Reaver even if he had calmed down.

“Don’t you think I know you’re some sort of aboriginal outside the empire’s purview, brat?” Kaldor laughed. “But fine. It might not have been a skill. So, what did you do? If I was at your grade, my Dao would have been completely suppressed, cut off from the Heavens themselves.”

Zac only shrugged in response without any intention of explaining what he did. “Since it’s not a skill, why not honor your part of the bargain before anything else? Where is the splinter?”

Kaldor had given in, but Zac still felt cheated. Even if the Izh’Rak Reaver lacked any facial expressions, Zac could tell Kaldor was quite pleased even after having lost. It really looked like Kaldor had been going overboard to dig into Zac’s secrets rather than going mad, and he’d succeeded.

That final blast right behind Zac’s head was probably meticulously planned rather than an unfortunate coincidence, a gambit to force Zac into showcasing any secret techniques he had.

Still, Zac didn’t dare complain as he activated the five seals he’d formed with his Late-mastery [Undying Mark], the healing skill he’d gotten ample experience using over the past few years. The situation was unfair, but there was ultimately nothing he could do about it at the moment.

Kaldor was so far beyond himself, no matter if you talked strength or standing, so complaining would do him no good. Furthermore, Zac was asking the Reaver to hand over a priceless treasure, which meant breaking the rules of the Orom World. For now, Zac could only pray that him showing off one of his Bloodline Talents wouldn’t cause any issues down the road, and thank the lucky stars he didn’t need to use the far-more-conspicuous [Force of the Void].

“Now, don’t look so glum,” Kaldor laughed, clearly understanding Zac’s misgivings. “Well, this can be considered my bad. I’ve been bored the past few millennia and got a bit too excited. How about this? In addition to that accursed item, I’ll provide something else. Ask me one question, and I’ll do my best to answer without holding back.”

Zac’s heart shuddered, surprise written across his face. This was a precious opportunity, even if Zac didn’t feel it matched up to being exploited like this. Pavina hadn’t divulged too much about Kaldor’s origins over the past years, but he’d managed to piece together a few things. First of all, Kaldor was from a faction of equal standing to the Umbri’Zi Clan, though it was more of an army than a clan.

Secondly, Kaldor arrived in the Orom World as an Early Monarch, meaning the skeleton had at least some real standing even before he was caught. Why the Orom had actually dared swallow him was unclear, and perhaps only Kaldor himself knew the answer. In either case, Kaldor should possess a lot of information, no matter if it was on cultivation, the Undead Empire, or the wider world.

He needed to make this question count.

“What’s the real reason members of the Undead Empire can’t cultivate the Path of Pure Death?” Zac asked.

This was the most pertinent question he could think of, where Kaldor also had a decent chance of knowing the answer. Asking about cultivation wasn’t too urgent since he didn’t have any pressing issues in that regard. The only exception was how to form a core in his unique situation, but why would Kaldor have an answer to that? Besides, he would be able to meet Yrial soon enough, someone who walked a path of duality who was probably more experienced in this regard.

Zac wanted to find out more about the Six Profundity Empire and the origin of Leandra’s faction, but it wasn’t that urgent either. Even if he got the answers he was looking for, he was way too weak to do anything about it. He did, however, need to know more about the weird rule of the Undead Empire.

His identity was already sensitive considering not only his actions in the Twilight Harbor, but also because of him being an Edgewalker. If there were some hidden issues with walking the Path of Pure Death or Oblivion in addition to all that, he needed to know. It would be critical for his future relationship with the Undead Empire, whether he would ultimately dare go there or not.

“Brat, are you trying to get me killed?” Kaldor muttered, and Zac looked on with confusion as the Reaver took out a bottle of a white mixture that he started covering his head with. “Do you know how the Undead Empire was founded?” Kaldor asked, covering his neck and chest following his head.

“The ancient undead factions banded together to find refuge during the Dark Ages,” Zac said, not understanding why the skeleton was oiling himself up. “You eventually found the Heartlands and settled down.”

“Our ancestors found no Heartlands,” Kaldor snorted as he steadied himself. “We found what’s now called the Heart of the Empire.”

“The Heart of the Empire?” Zac repeated, drawing a complete blank. Catheya never mentioned that before, and neither was it mentioned in any of the missives he read in the Twilight Harbor.

“I doubt you’ve heard of it, considering it’s the core of our power,” Kaldor sighed as cracks suddenly appeared all over his body. “After all, it’s an Eternal Heritage holding the key to Death.”

64

HEART OF THE EMPIRE

Zac mutely looked on with amazement as deep cracks spread across the Izh’Rak Reaver’s bones. It was definitely the work of the Undead Empire’s commandments, a punishment for divulging the secrets to an outsider. Zac knew just how sturdy the exoskeleton of Reavers were, and Kaldor was at the Peak of Monarchy. Even then, the restriction that bound all imperials managed to cause such damage for uttering a few sentences. Just how overbearing was the Primo?

Was it perhaps related to the Heart of the Empire?

Zac had always wondered what the Undead Empire had to fall back on in order to survive to this day. After all, they were making enemies left and right with their eternal crusade, even against peak factions like the Buddhist Sangha. Certainly, the Undead Empire was a terrifying existence, and Zac suspected they had at least a dozen Supremacies.

Still, was that really enough to fight in every direction, contending against multiple factions at once? At first, Zac believed it was related to the Primo and the mysterious Founders. If the Primo was a powerhouse at the Peak of the A-grade or perhaps even something beyond that, it might be enough to prevent the empire from being completely overrun.

However, since finding out about the existence of Eternal Heritages from Qi’Sar, Zac had floated the possibility of the empire controlling some ancient relic that kept them, or at least the Heartlands, safe. From the sounds of it, that might be the case. What all this had to do with Pure Death wasn’t clear, but Zac guessed the Reaver was getting there.

The white concoction Kaldor smeared across his body had come alive, and it burrowed into the cracks. Just a few seconds later it solidified, seemingly repairing the damage altogether. Zac looked on with mixed emotions, inwardly vowing to never make this troublesome species an enemy for real.

Even if he managed to crack those disgustingly sturdy bones, they actually had concoctions that could mend the damage in an instant?

“Spare shavings,” Kaldor explained when he saw Zac’s look. “A pain to make, literally, but I’ve had a lot of free time. Anyway, the ancestors found the heart and managed to gain limited control over it. It was the emanations of the heart that birthed the Heartlands, and it is still upholding it to this day.”

Zac’s eyes widened in surprise, partly because of what Kaldor said, but mostly because of what could be discerned between the lines. Limited control? The Primo and the Undead Princes were unable to take full control of this Eternal Heritage, even after billions of years? It almost sounded like they were using it in an unintended manner, just siphoning some of its leftover energy to terraform the surroundings.

The possibility almost beggared comprehension. Just becoming a Monarch was akin to becoming a god, where you carried a literal world in your body. You could live for a million years at the peak of the grade, surpassing Earth’s civilization dozens of times over, and you controlled vast powers.

Above that were Autarchs, and then the mysterious Supremacies who were so exalted, Zac still had no idea what kind of existences they were. The only information he’d manage to come across was that they could change the laws of the Heavens all across the empires they controlled, remolding the Dao in their image.

But even these kinds of beings were unable to properly control an Eternal Heritage erected in a bygone era? Just who created it and what kind of stage had they reached? Just what were the limits of cultivation? Perhaps he’d be able to find the answers someday, but for now, Zac took a steadying breath and refocused on his question.

“What does the Heart of the Empire have to do with my question?” Zac prompted.

“Some things will just harm you if you know. Suffice to say, the Path of Pure Death is inextricably linked to the heart. If the general ban wasn’t imposed, the source of our power would be weakened, diluted. Only a scant few can be allowed to walk the path of purity, and it is not only a matter of talent—there’s also temperament and providence. If the wrong person reaches the peak… The consequences could be disastrous.” Kaldor sighed as a few more cracks appeared across his body.

Zac slowly nodded. Hearing the explanation, the first thing he came to think of was Be’Zi. Was this why she had severed her Karma with the empire? She wanted to delve into Pure Death and Oblivion, but she wasn’t qualified? Or did she have the qualifications, but broke some rules when wanting to transition Pure Death into Oblivion?

And why would the Dao, the fundamental truths of the universe, be linked to an old ruin? How were they connected? There was something odd going on at the peak. From the various pieces of intelligence Zac had gathered, there seemed to be some sort of limitations to the Dao as you approached the Terminus.

It was almost like the truths became a finite resource, where each peak could only house so many cultivators. Zac was about to ask some clarifying questions, but the Reaver shut him down before Zac had the chance.

“Brat, just join the empire if you want to know more. With your bloodline, you’d get a hero’s welcome. Ow, ow, my bones!” Kaldor complained. “If you can control these cursed Remnants, you should be able to find a backer within your kin who can let you undergo the examination. Our races are always eager to find members on the outside.”

“Why’s that?” Zac asked with interest.

“So many fell during the Dark Ages. Others were lost as we searched for safe harbor,” Kaldor grunted. “All our heritages are incomplete, except for the bloodsuckers who joined later. Finding someone like you might mean your race can reclaim something they lost, though the odds are minuscule. You can use that as a bargaining chip.”

Zac nodded pensively as he thought back to his vision of Eoz, the founding Draugr. He had no idea what the names of the various branches of Draugr were, except for the other two mentioned in his vision and Zi, the ancestor of Catheya’s Clan. What if Eoz was a lost heritage? With his ancestor being the third to break out of the Abyssal Lake, Zac figured the bloodline had to be quite strong.

That alone might be even more valuable than his identity as an Edgewalker. If not for the Undead Empire as a whole, then at least for the Abyssal Shores. With this knowledge, he felt far better prepared for potentially joining the Undead Empire in the future, though he would have to digest what he’d found out first.

“So, the splinter?” Zac said.

“Take it,” Kaldor grunted as he pointed toward an empty spot in the courtyard.

The next moment, the ground rumbled as an opening appeared, from which a pedestal rose. On top of it rested a glass casing covered in intricate engravings. Four pitch-black runes slowly rotated around the box. These illusory runes were somewhat similar to the ones Be’Zi had erected in his soul, though they weren’t nearly as refined.

If Zac had to guess, it was Kaldor himself who added the outer array to add a second layer of protection to the cage. Even then, it wasn’t perfect. Zac could vaguely sense the Remnant floating in the middle of the cage, and the two splinters in his mind stirred. However, the caged splinter was in some sort of sealed state, with only some weak tendrils of Oblivion leaking from its casing.

“Good riddance,” Kaldor muttered as he looked at the Splinter of Oblivion. “That energy is quite interesting, but it is ultimately no good. Be careful with this thing.”

“I know,” Zac sighed as he mentally started to prepare himself.

He didn’t know what to expect when absorbing the third set, but he couldn’t imagine it would be a comfortable experience. Thankfully, he’d evolved his soul since last, which would hopefully allow him to make the trek to the bamboo forest after this without causing a scene.

“I’m not just talking about its mental influence,” Kaldor said, dragging Zac out of his thoughts. “Do you know why there’s only one set of these things in the Orom World, even when this big bastard has been alive for almost forty million years? Surely, it would encounter more of them as it swallowed millions and millions of poor souls. After all, there aren’t just one or two of them out there.”

Zac remembered the vision of when that godlike existence destroyed the Heart of Oblivion and Spark of Creation. Going by the apocalyptic scene, there were at least a few thousand Remnants scattered across the Multiverse. It really was a bit odd that Orom only had one set, considering this was the second time he stumbled into a pair in a couple of years.

“The Orom discards the other ones it finds?” Zac ventured after some thought.

“Exactly. Spits them right out before running away,” Kaldor laughed.

“One is an eternal curse, two is a calamity…” Zac muttered.

“What’s that?” Kaldor asked before he shrugged. “No, I’m talking about something else. These things alter fate.”

“Alter fate?” Zac repeated with confusion.

“The creature that was split into these shards was a unique existence born during the rebirth of the era. It was only the equivalent of Peak Autarch, but its control over the Dao was greater than most Supremacies. The only reason it didn’t reach that stage was because of an obsession that held it back, forever trapping it at the threshold.”

“What does that have to do about fate-altering?” Zac frowned.

“Its obsession was too powerful, and it alters reality even in its pseudo-dead state. These Remnants want to be reforged into one. My guess is, the more of these things you collect, the more you’ll find yourself on a collision course with more Remnants. Whether you like it or not.”

“The Remnants are somehow altering events? Altering my decisions?” Zac asked.

“No idea how it actually works,” Kaldor said as he scratched the spots on his skull he just repaired. “It can be considered an opportunity. Who knows, this phenomenon might be what brought you to me and Pavina, eh? But it might also be a calamity, where you’re dragged to a place of no return. More importantly, are you willing to be a puppet, to be manipulated based on some ancient bastard? Or do you want to be in control of your fate and your path?”

Zac wordlessly gazed at the shimmering splinter as he went over the Reaver’s words. It was true, he’d repeatedly felt like a puppet when it came to these Remnants, of how he felt the System was essentially forcing him down a path.

Hearing this, he might have been unfair toward the System. Perhaps it was the Remnants themselves who kept pulling him toward their brethren, with the System simply cheering them on. But it didn’t really matter. As Kaldor said, it was ultimately an issue of his fate not being in his own hands. It didn’t matter so much who was manipulating him—what mattered was that he needed to break free.

“Is there anything I can do?”

“Who knows,” Kaldor said. “I only heard about these things in passing before I got trapped in this place. But I figure there should be some solutions. The ancient will hidden inside these things is hard to deal with, but the power of the crystals themselves is not that impressive. Perhaps you can extract what you need and discard the rest when you get strong enough?”

Zac slowly nodded in agreement as he walked toward the sealed crystal hovering in its cage. The closer he got, the more the Remnants in his mental prison stirred, but they seemed a bit confused, unclear on what was going on. The same thing was happening to the sealed splinter, where its black luster flickered ominously, but it didn’t lash out at all.

“You have just over three months,” Kaldor said just as Zac was about to pick up the cage.

“What?” Zac said with confusion, stopping in his tracks.

“As I said, you had three years to take this thing. Soon after, it had to be returned to be resealed,” Kaldor grinned. “Since you came three months early, you have just over three months to play around with this thing before it goes back to the repository in Liberty Point.”

“What happens if I don’t return it?”

“Someone like me will be sent to retrieve it. Someone who’s not bound by the rules of a duel,” Kaldor said pointedly.

“And if I consume it?” Zac hesitated.

“Same deal, but your corpse will be retrieved instead,” Kaldor laughed. “So, you better be sure about what you’re doing.”

Cold sweat ran down Zac’s back as he looked at the splinter in front of him, and he inwardly cursed Kaldor for being so vague. If he really waited until the last day, wouldn’t he be screwed? It would take him weeks to reach Three Virtues’ bamboo forest and get the shard, more than enough time to be tracked down by an Emerald Badge.

After fighting Kaldor, who had restrained his Daos to the level of Peak Dao Fragments, Zac was even less confident in making it out of a battle like this alive. Certainly, Kaldor was most likely one of the most powerful Emerald Badges around, but even the weaker ones had unique strength like Kaldor’s killing intent.

“Thank you for the warning,” Zac said. “How do I take this thing away? Can I put it in a Spatial Ring?”

“Sure,” Kaldor nodded. “But it will taint the pocket space. It shouldn’t be a problem for a year or two, but the ring would eventually destabilize and blow you up.”

Zac breathed in relief, but his heart still beat like a drum as he placed his hand against the glass casing, trying to imprint the seals to memory. The runes on the class box were distinct from both Kaldor’s addition and Be’Zi’s gift, more in line with the seals the System had added to the prison in his mind. Perhaps their design would be one of the clues to figuring a way out of this mess in the future.

A wave of unfettered desire slammed against the cage in his mind, but it quickly calmed as Zac put the cage into his Cosmos Sack. He infused his senses into the bag, and he immediately understood what Kaldor meant. Kaldor’s protective runes didn’t make it into the bag, and a black haze had started to spread from the glass box in the subspace, causing some ominous ripples in the fabric of reality.

Thankfully, Zac didn’t have any important items in this native bag, and he didn’t care if it broke down. As long as it could withstand the influence until he fetched the shard as well, he was content.

Having gotten what he’d come for, Zac saw no reason to linger in the Reaver’s mansion. He wasn’t sure what to think of Kaldor. The old Monarch had been extremely shameless and forced his hand, but he’d also provided great assistance. Perhaps, it was only thanks to this Izh’Rak Reaver he was safe and sound after setting off his Annihilation Sphere years ago.

Still, no matter how many benefits Kaldor provided, it ultimately felt like Kaldor had his own plans, where he once more had become an unwitting pawn in some greater scheme. The sooner he could get away from this place, the better.

“So, where are you off to now, brat?” Kaldor asked curiously as Zac got ready to leave.

“I’ll visit Pavina and thank her for helping me survive today’s battle,” Zac answered after some consideration.

“That little traitor,” Kaldor snorted, though he clearly wasn’t upset. “And then?”

Kaldor’s expression was lazy, though Zac understood there were hidden implications within the question.

“After that?” Zac hesitated. “I’ll stay in the area for now.”

“Hm,” Kaldor nodded. “If you ever get out of here, are you planning on joining the Undead Empire?”

“I’m not against it, but I haven’t made any decisions,” Zac said. “From what I’ve gathered, the situation seems a bit messy.”

“All powerful factions are messy,” Kaldor laughed. “That’s how things are when great benefits are at stake. Not even the baldies of the Buddhist Sangha are any different. Where there is cultivation and the pursuit of Eternity, there will be intrigue and backstabbing. But you should know, you will always be incomplete until you return to your origin.”

“My origin?” Zac frowned. “The Abyssal Lake?”

“Exactly,” Kaldor said. “Without returning to your origin, you will never unlock your true potential. But when you do, you will be able to look down on the world. Such is the benefit of a divine race. Goals that are just flights of fancy for base creatures like Revenants or humans will be well within your reach.”

Zac furrowed his brows, not commenting on the proclamation.

“Off you go then, brat,” Kaldor added. “Remember, you have three months before that thing has to be returned. Not even I can help you after that.”

“Thank you,” Zac said as he left for Pavina’s mansion. “For everything.”

“I wonder, what will you choose?” Kaldor muttered as he sensed the young Edgewalker disappear among the trees before his gaze turned in another direction. “And why did you have me go to these lengths?”

65

WORDS SPOKEN FROM THE HEART

A day later, Zac reached Pavina’s mansion, and he found his teacher sitting with an axe similar to Zac’s own in hand.

“You won,” Pavina said, placing the axe to her side. “I’m quite the teacher.”

“Yes, you’re quite something,” Zac smiled.

“How did it go?” Pavina asked.

Zac recounted the whole battle, including how Kaldor started cheating the moment he was about to lose. There was a decent chance the Reaver acted with a hidden purpose rather than being consumed by bloodlust, whether it was to push Zac to find a breakthrough or to sound out any hidden strength. Which one was less obvious, and trying to glean anything from Pavina’s inscrutable expression, didn’t help at all.

She simply nodded like Kaldor’s shamelessness was a matter of course. Neither did she try to dig into what kind of bloodline technique Zac had used to turn things around. Zac wasn’t willing to divulge that secret either, since it was obviously different from what normal Draugr possessed. He did however want to see if Pavina could shed any light on his most recent find, whether his idea had potential.

He recounted what happened when he started using the framework for [Thousand Lights Avatar].

“Soul and technique,” Pavina muttered. “Interesting. It sounds a bit like the later phase of the Integration Stage, yet distinct somehow.”

“Do you think it’s feasible to fuse your soul into one’s technique this way?” Zac asked.

“I don’t see why not. Your soul is the bridge between the Grand Dao and yourself. If you can really spread your soul, and not just Mental Energy, throughout your body as you mentioned, it should be helpful. It might not only strengthen your technique, but also increase the pace you improve it.”

“Are there any problems?” Zac probed, noticing the Revenant wasn’t looking too enthused even if she praised the method.

“Time,” Pavina said without hesitation. “You’re young, but you should have already started realizing the time and effort required to walk toward the peak. Every step forward is a tremendous undertaking, be it from skills, Dao, levels, or other aspects of your path. The soul is famously demanding in this aspect, and what you’re proposing is to not only cultivate the soul. It is also to form a spiritual avatar and mold it with your stances.

“I don’t see a scenario where too many would bother with something like this, apart from a cultivator who has a class based on this kind of fusion between the soul and physical attacks,” Pavina concluded. “Even if it can strengthen you, the time cost in proportion to improvement is both risky and limited from what I can tell.”

“So, it’s a bad idea?” Zac grimaced.

“I didn’t say that,” Pavina said with a shake of her head. “I said it wasn’t advisable for most people. But most people do not have your talent for fusing path and technique. The capability to cultivate their soul is quite rare for most races, and I have never met anyone who dared to walk both these time-consuming routes. But you can only go so far following convention.

“No Autarch had reached their level by being reasonable and measured. Their conviction in their path is unbreakable, no matter how crazy it might seem to others. I am simply urging you to confirm whether this method is something that resonates with you and your path. If it does, try it out. The worst that can happen is you fail and possibly get stuck in some bottleneck. But even then, you’ve been true to yourself, and all journeys must end somewhere. That is the fate of a cultivator.”

Zac agreed. It was just like Pavina said. Time was becoming more and more precious as he grew stronger, even if his longevity kept improving. He was already running late for his planned breakthrough into Hegemony, and the more he added to his plate, the more baggage he would have to carry down the road.

There was thankfully still time to figure all this out. As long as his plan succeeded, he would be back on Earth soon enough, and he could finally take a breather and collect himself. His foundations had never been as solid as they were right now, and he could afford a breather where he properly planned out his next steps.

The two kept talking for another hour, but it was eventually time to go. The splinter was calling him from within his Cosmos Sack, and he was eager to get the shard as well before something went awry. Three Virtues seemed to know much more than he let on and Zac feared the more time he gave the shifty monk to prepare, the worse a position Zac would find himself in. However, before he left, he was beset with indecision, his heart caught between paranoia and goodwill.

Should he tell her?

This was something he’d been struggling over since Pavina had taken him under her wing, putting him back on the right track with his cultivation. Exposing his escape plans might ruin everything, even if Pavina herself wasn’t planning on ratting him out. The Orom was generally oblivious to the Orom World, but who knew what it actually picked up through the prison brands?

But could he really just disappear from this prison, leaving behind those who had given him so much?

He couldn’t, his conscience wouldn’t allow it.

“In the next few months, I’ll—”

“Some things need not be spoken,” Pavina interrupted as she glanced toward the sky.

Zac was surprised, but he immediately rephrased what he was going to say. Turns out he’d been worrying about nothing, where Pavina already had a decent idea of what was going on. He should have expected it, considering that Kaldor had already figured out he was the source of the previous blast of Oblivion that failed to break himself out.

“…I’ll, go into seclusion. I generally stay close to the border of Life and Death. I’d be more comfortable if you guarded the area.”

Pavina nodded with a smile. “Go on with your cultivation. No need to worry about me. What will be, will be.”

Zac said his goodbyes, wondering if he would ever see this mentor of his again.

“He seems confident,” Pavina commented as Zac left.

“Little bastard. I was the one who gave him that cursed item and the one who received the backlash for his previous attempt,” Kaldor swore as he stepped out from the shadows. “Where was my invitation?”

“That’s what you get for going so hard on my little disciple,” Pavina smiled. “He seems to remember both goodwill and grudges, weighing them against each other.”

Kaldor only snorted in response before his aura changed to a more serious demeanor. “Gather the others. This is it. It’s time to complete our mission.”

“Should we really heap this responsibility on the child and not even tell him?” Pavina hesitated. “Can he carry this burden alone?”

“Perhaps not, but he’s not the only one making their moves. Fate is congregating, almost by a scary degree. Even the big guy seems to sense something amiss. It has sped up considerably,” Kaldor grunted. “But its futile. It’s swallowed too many of the baldies. Fate is inescapable.”

“The Sangha,” Pavina grimaced. “If it comes to blows, I fear, even with master to protect us…”

“Don’t worry,” Kaldor said with a shake of his head. “Our goals are different.”

“What about the child?” Pavina asked. “We’re just going to let such a talent disappear?”

“Don’t worry, I tested him,” Kaldor said. “I divulged some core secrets of the empire, and I only received some surface damage. He’s already one step through the door, he just doesn’t know it.”

Having delivered the warning to Pavina, Zac felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Better yet, even after a week had passed as he returned to Samsara’s Edge, there still hadn’t been any issues cropping up. Therefore, he didn’t immediately head toward the secluded bamboo forest in the heart of the Life-attuned Zone. First, he visited Heda’s farm.

In many ways, the Arborist had helped him as much as Pavina, and if Zac didn’t offer her this hint as well, he’d feel bad about it forever. After all, he couldn’t be certain that the seed Heda asked him to throw out was actually an escape measure of hers. It might simply be her way to send out something of hers into the Multiverse, a heritage of sorts.

Heda only smiled and patted his head when he told her where she should go for the next months, not giving him any indication at all whether she intended to follow his advice or not. He still stayed behind for a while, and the Arborist checked up on Haro, the Heavenrender Seed left in Zac’s Worldring.

“You can put Vivi inside now,” Heda concluded. “She will help nurture the seed, and curtail its inherent destructive tendencies.”

Zac was elated, and took out the spatial tube from his Cosmos Sack and put it into the Low-quality Worldring. The huge vine hidden within the tube emerged, a giant that spanned over a hundred meters. Its massive stalk dwarfed the small seed hovering above a series of arrays, yet Vivi didn’t get too close.

It gingerly waved its vines around the seed, almost looking afraid to inadvertently hit it. The movements weren’t threatening, but rather protective as she formed a defensive perimeter around Haro. Heda had already explained it was quite common, but it was still odd for Zac to see a plant with motherly instincts, especially considering the two plants were different species.

Even with the big vine appearing in the ring, Heda’s arrangements weren’t harmed at all. The desolate farmlands the ring originally came with had been completely transformed since Zac purchased the seed, with Heda having set up multiple arrays to automate pretty much everything needed to nurture the Heavenrender Vine.

The only thing he needed to do was allow a small, but constant drain of Dao and Mental Energy into the array. That way, the seed would be imprinted with his spirit, sort of like the undead he raised. That would make it much easier to form a contract as he had with Vivi. Without it, Heda wasn’t confident he’d manage to accomplish the task.

Taming an adult Heavenrender Vine was pretty much impossible, they were far too bloodthirsty. They’d even attack an Autarch rather than submit, fighting until their last breath. Only by nurturing a seed did you have a chance, but these things were simply too hard to get. Only mature C-grade plants nurtured a seed, and they might only give birth to a dozen or two over their nigh-eternal lifespans.

Furthermore, the moment a seed was born, it was immediately flung into the cosmos, often by the vine tearing a hole in space itself. With the seed barely emitting any energy signature, it would just look like a small piece of space debris. Finding one was a matter of luck, which was why they were so exorbitantly expensive on the outside.

When it was time to leave, Zac made a beeline for the heart of the zone after reminding Heda to stay close over the next few months. Ultimately, he didn’t choose to warn Ubo or any of the other cultivators living around Samsara’s Edge that he’d gotten to know over the past years.

He couldn’t save everyone. For one, there were no guarantees to his plan, and the more people he let know, the greater the odds of betrayal. He had his goals and people who relied on him back home—far stronger connections than those he had made here out of necessity. If he could, he would properly damage the Orom on his way out, but that was the extent of what he could do.

Zac reached the bamboo forest a week later and stopped at the edge like last time.

‘Enter,’ the voice of Three Virtues echoed in his mind, and Zac saw a path in front of him.

Zac walked inside, reaching the small tranquil temple hidden in the depths. This time, there were over thirty monks sitting in silent meditation on the platform by the river. A muted susurrus of harmonized voices drifted over, but Zac couldn’t make out any individual words. Still, there was an intangible phenomenon gathering throughout the area, like some mysterious power was brewing.

The scene reminded Zac of the monks at the Temple of Everlasting Peace by the last time he visited. They’d joined together to summon Lord 84th back then. Was this the same thing? The thought made Zac wary as he looked for the dwarven monk. The timing was too suspect.

If Three Virtues was really planning something with the help of his acolytes, it had to be related to Zac and his mission. But how?

“Amitabha, Almsgiver,” a voice drifted out from the main hall where Zac had vaguely spotted a powerful statue before. “It has been two years.”

“I have accomplished the task your eminence gave me the first time I visited,” Zac said, his gaze moving away from the monks by the river. Even after Zac spoke up, they hadn’t so much as looked over in his direction. They were completely occupied with their meditation. “I’m here to pick up… that thing.”

“No rush, no rush,” Three Virtues answered, still not appearing. “As Almsgiver blesses us with his presence, fate shift and the clouds part. Benefactor would do us a great honor if he visited this poor monk’s temple to celebrate the completion for the statue of our guardian deity.”

Zac hesitated as he looked at the main hall, remembering all-too-well the fearful emanations that had come from the statue within the first time he visited. This time around, he couldn’t sense a thing, and Zac wasn’t sure whether that was a good or bad thing. But, what could he do? He needed the shard, so he would have to play along.

For now.

His nerves were still stretched taut as he entered the temple, ready to flash away at any hint of danger with the help of [Earthstrider]. He was even ready to take out the Splinter of Oblivion if need be, no matter if his danger sense was completely silent. But no obvious threats were waiting for him as he crossed the threshold.

The hall was mostly empty, unless you counted the beautifully drawn paintings covering the walls. They depicted various devas and Boddhisatva’s imparting their blessings, but Zac didn’t dare look too closely even if they didn’t emit any energy fluctuations. He knew layers and layers Buddhist doctrine and impartments were infused in these kinds of imagery, and looking to closely could impact one’s path if not careful.

On the other side of the entrance, Zac spotted the monk sitting on a mat in front of a five-meter tall statue. The gilded man depicted wasn’t anyone Zac recognized. In fact, he barely looked like a Bhottisavha at all, but rather a regal warrior who held a sword with a pommel that resembled a dragon.

He did have the familiar halo behind his back though, and now that Zac was this close, he sensed a vague hint of faith energy surrounding the statue.

“Sāgara,” Three Virtues smiled. “The chosen protector of this poor monk’s temple.”

“Is he real?” Zac couldn’t help but ask, curiosity overcoming his purpose of coming.

Over the past years, Zac had heard and read many tales surrounding Buddha and the Buddhist Sanga. Of mystical realms, powerful warriors, and godlike beings he’d never seen or heard of elsewhere. However, these stories seemed distant and hazy, just like mythology back on Earth.

There was no anchor to the Multiverse in the stories, no mention of other forces or beings like the Primo. Were these celestial beings the monks consecrated actual cultivators or were they concepts of the path?

“What is real? What is false?” Three Virtues smiled. “If a kingdom’s throne is empty, is it not a kingdom?”

“Uh,” Zac hesitated.

“Come, sit,” Three Virtues said as he pointed to the mat next to him before lighting two sticks of incense in front of the statue.

“Is there something wrong?” Zac asked, feeling like he was being set up for another scam. “I was just planning on helping you getting rid of that thing. I don’t want to take up any of your time and that of your disciple-brothers.”

“It is our delight to welcome a Benefactor back to the temple,” Three Virtues laughed. “Let me ask you, Almsgiver. This unrepentant beast has trapped cultivators of all backgrounds for millions of years. Do you think the Orom deserves punishment?”

“I’m just an E-grade cultivator,” Zac hesitated. “Why do you ask me?”

“Words spoken from the heart contain the power to change the world.”

“If that was true, I’d be long gone from this place,” Zac muttered, but he saw that the smiling monk was still waiting for an answer.

Zac didn’t know if this was some kind of test and whether there was a correct answer, so he simply chose to answer from his heart. Zac gathered his thoughts as he looked at the imposing sword-wielding deity.

“If speaking from a cosmic perspective, I would have to say no,” Zac said. “What the Orom is doing is ultimately not that different from other cultivators. It is snatching resources to increase its strength, cutting off the path of others to advance its own. From all what I’ve seen since I stepped on the road of cultivation, that is the Heavenly Law. Evolution.

“I have walked through mountains of corpses to get where I am, and I am still nothing but an E-grade cultivator. By the time I reach the same level as the Orom, I would possibly have killed even more than he. Yet I don’t consider myself evil, deserving of punishment. We all knew the risks when we started challenging the Heavens to gain power and longevity. To think the Orom to be deserving of punishment because of this would make me a hypocrite.”

“Amitabha, a vast heart is immeasurable. Benevolence is a divine path,” Three Virtues nodded. “Yet, I sense Almsgiver is not done.”

Zac slowly nodded. “While I don’t think it is inherently deserving in the grand scheme of things, it is still deserving of punishment from my perspective. It has robbed me of years I could have spent with my loved ones, of my momentum, of friends, and who knows what else. I am not an enlightened being, my heart cannot encompass all beings like you monks. If given the opportunity, I’ll retaliate against my captor.”

Silence echoed in the hall after Zac’s proclamation, and it almost looked like the head of the deity had grown more sinister as the swirling clouds of incense gathered around it.

To the side, the smile of Three Virtues grew wider.

66

TRUE AND FALSE

After having spoken his piece, Zac felt an odd premonition he couldn’t decipher. As though something had changed, yet everything was the same. The temple, the monk, and the statue—it was all as before. Yet Zac felt out of… phase, for lack of a better term.

“A benevolent heart is important, but indiscriminate compassion can bring more suffering than good. Expunging Mara is a great merit, though this poor monk believes no fate is beyond redemption,” Three Virtues said, and it was like his words clicked reality back into place.

“Balance is required, I believe Almsgiver understands that fundamental truth quite well.”

Zac slowly nodded, though he honestly wasn’t quite certain what point the monk was trying to make.

“Almsgiver has helped this poor temple resist the blight of Oblivion, a meritorious deed in line with the Dharma,” Three Virtues continued. “In fact, Almsgiver gives this poor monk the impression of a budding arhat, full of life and possibility. With Almsgiver having such harmonious relation to the Dharma, has Almsgiver ever considered ordination?”

“No one can say what the future holds,” Zac said, afraid to give a straightforward rejection at this stage, even if he had no intentions of shaving his head and donning a kasaya. “What will be, will be.”

With a massive faction like the Buddhist Sangha, there were many layers of membership, and things weren’t as black and white as it was with the Undead Empire. With the undead, you were either a member, where the commandments bound you, or you were an outsider, no matter if you were another undead or a dreamer.

With the Buddhist Sangha, the lines were blurred. Most notably, anyone could visit most of the Buddhist cultivation grounds, though the mysterious paradise and three of the four oceans were always closed to outsiders. The properly ordained monks who permanently resided on the mountains were just a small minority of the total population of the Sangha.

The vast majority could almost be considered loose cultivators, and they followed Buddha’s teachings to varying degrees. Some were fully committed, becoming self-ordained monks and sometimes running monasteries or temples on the outside. Others were empires with a Buddhist heritage, where many cultivators followed adjoining paths.

There were even people who simply visited the holy lands to make use of the high-quality cultivation environment. The monks didn’t seem to mind at all, and even shared a lot of techniques with the public. Even unorthodox cultivators carrying tremendous amounts of fell Karma were allowed inside, much to the annoyance of their pursuers.

Conflict was banned in most regions of the Sangha, but there was danger of another kind. As that necromancer had once said, the monks were natural pathbreakers, and that effect was no doubt amplified manifold in the Buddhist Heartlands. Those who visited with impure motives might find their path subverted in short order, some to the point they lost all sense of self.

They became beings without emotions or desires, giving up on everything except the sutras and the Heavenly Dao. Visiting the Sangha required an extremely sturdy Dao Heart, but that danger was actually a source of attraction to some elite cultivators. Those who managed to hold onto their path might eventually walk away with a tempered heart and a path even sturdier than before.

That fact enticed countless geniuses who’d been stuck at a threshold. For them, the gamble of losing one’s identity or breaking their limitations was well worth taking. The temples were probably happy with the arrangement as well, having a steady stream of great talents being sucked into their path.

While all these types of visitors could be considered followers of the Sangha, they ultimately weren’t a true part of it. Like Catheya had said, there were Nine Mountains, Eight Temples, Four Oceans, and One Paradise. These chapters were predominant powers unto themselves, and could all be considered A-grade factions.

The way they went about things was a bit different, but most of the Mountains and Temples also had vast arrays of subordinate monasteries and factions, who could be considered outer disciples of the Sangha. To be ordained was to officially join either one of the main branches or their subordinate factions.

Trillions of people in the world would jump at the opportunity to officially join the Buddhist Sangha, even if it was for one of the lower temples. However, that path was not for Zac, no matter what the names of his Dao Branches were.

“Amitabha, as long as Almsgiver lives true to his heart, he will always be welcomed with open arms,” Three Virtues said. “Come, let us close this chapter of Karma.”

Zac’s eyes lit up, relieved to see the monk wasn’t planning on reneging on his offer or throwing a wrench into Zac’s plans. However, the relief lasted less than a minute, because he saw something amiss in front of him.

The rear structure where Three Virtues kept his Shard of Creation had completely transformed since the last time Zac was here, where it had gained a golden sheen. More importantly, its insides were absolutely flooded with Creation Energy, along with countless runes that contained vast amounts of Buddhist spirituality.

The scripts were slowly floating around in the middle of the soup of Creation, and Zac felt his mind shudder just from glancing at the ever-churning mixture.

“Unfortunately, this poor monk has failed to properly contain the energy released by the shard over the past few years,” Three Virtues sighed. “I’m ashamed, I’m ashamed. This one could only contain it to a small area, lest it harms any innocent bystander.”

Zac looked at the golden temple, his body shuddering from the intense fluctuations of Creation. The shards in his mind were already acting out, their reaction far stronger compared to the response of the splinters when he picked up his third copy at Kaldor’s castle. Eventually, his gaze shifted back toward the still-smiling monk, Zac’s eyes filled with unspoken reproach.

“Amitabha, heart is all,” the monk said. “With an immovable heart, nothing can bar your path.”

“I’m guessing the glass casing sealing shard is in the middle of the temple? And I just have to go inside and get it out?” Zac sighed, getting an affirmative nod after each question.

Zac only grunted in response as he stepped forward, not even bothering to complain. He couldn’t compete with this level of thick-skinned behavior. Three Virtues was obviously more than capable of dealing with some run-off Creation, even more so than Kaldor judging by the tens of thousands of monastic runes that danced through the stockpiled energy like they’d become one.

Not a drop of energy was able to leave the temple, proving how powerful the containment was. There was no telling how the monk set this thing up, but his intentions were clear. Three Virtues wanted him to undergo whatever trial he’d prepared.

Zac had two options as he saw it. The first was to take the plunge, betting on the fact that Three Virtues wasn’t actually out to hurt him. Secondly, he could turn around and leave, giving up on the opportunity. The former option was more dangerous, while the latter came with strings attached. Was the Splinter of Oblivion alone enough to break out? How would he get his hands on a shard before the imbalance caused problems? And would Three Virtues even let him back down at this stage?

Ultimately, Zac chose the former. He didn’t trust Three Virtues as far as he could throw him, but Zac did trust in his ability to deal with Creation Energy. After all, while the accumulated energy was a bit shocking to look at from the outside, he’d been forced to endure much worse after swallowing the second shard.

If there indeed were a trap hidden inside the runes, Zac believed he would be able to singe his body clear when forming the Glimpse of Chaos. Of course, there was the implicit comfort when dealing with someone like Three Virtues. The monk was probably an Autarch when he split himself into all those incarnations, and even the incarnations were approaching the threshold of Autarchy by the looks of it.

Would someone like this really bother concocting some convoluted scheme? Doubtful. They’d either just kill him outright or tell him what to do. The monk obviously had hidden motives for his actions, and Zac guessed they were rather targeted at something else than at Zac himself.

Zac stepped inside, readying himself for an onslaught of Creation, but was relieved to find that the Creation Energy wasn’t nearly as wild as what he’d endured back in the Twilight Ocean. However, the moment he let down his guard, he was beset by a wave of agony as his arms turned into huge golden wings.

He urgently tried to turn his arms back to normal, and was shocked when it didn’t work at all. He didn’t understand what was going on. Zac had encountered situations like these dozens of times, but the more he tried to revert the changes, the more Creation Energy his body absorbed.

‘Amitabha, heart is all,’ the voice of Three Virtues once more echoed in his mind.

The monk’s voice was like a bell dispersing some of Zac’s anxiety, and he somewhat understood what was going on. Zac quelled the burgeoning panic and stilled his heart. Soon enough, he closed his eyes and shut out everything except the steady beats from his chest. His panic abated, and when he opened his eyes again, he found that his arms had returned to normal.

He didn’t know how, but the monk had changed the nature of the Creation Energy, making it respond to one’s mental state instead of one’s desires. Having gotten the Creation Energy under control, Zac took another step into the temple, but the moment his foot hit the ground, his surroundings changed.

Zac found himself in a vast temple instead of the small rear building of Three Virtues’ temple. He wasn’t alone either—there were hundreds of monks sitting in prayer, each one chanting scriptures.

Illusion Array?

That was Zac’s first instinct, but his usual tricks for breaking out didn’t work at all. It really felt like he was here, with not a single weakness in the facade. Another wave of panic threatened to rise to the surface, stopping Zac in his tracks to still his heart again. There was no telling if his real body would suffer the consequences if he spiraled out of control in this illusion.

There had to be a trick to this. A purpose behind the monk’s arrangements.

Time passed as he properly took in the surroundings. The smell of incense and old parchment, the sounds of crackling scrolls, and hundreds of voices joining into an indistinct chant. The symmetry of it all and the stable tranquility of the ambiance. Eventually, Zac could feel it.

The monks were monks, but they also weren’t. Each one was chanting a scripture of their own, and the truths hidden within their words were them as much as their corporeal form. Not one chant was the same. Though they all had one thing in common—they were false. They didn’t contain the truth, at least not the one he needed.

Having come to a conclusion, Zac set out, walking among the straight lines of unmoving monks. Eventually, his gaze stopped at a specific one. The acolyte looked the same as the others—his appearance almost a carbon copy of the monks he’d met back on Earth. His sutra didn’t sound different than the others either, but it was different somehow.

“Heart…” Zac muttered as he looked down on the monk who was seemingly oblivious to his presence.

He hesitated for a few moments before he walked over. “Hey, can you hear me?”

There was no response, with the monk continuing his chant unabated. Not knowing what to do, Zac simply chose to pat the man’s shoulder, prompting his surroundings to change. He was back in the temple drowned in Creation, and he saw that some parts of his body had transformed while he was trapped.

Zac closed his eyes to steady his heart, and his body was back to normal in no time. There was one difference compared to before though—there was now a line of Buddhist scripture floating around his body.

Was it the sutra he heard in the vision or one of the runes that danced around him? In either case, Zac didn’t want it. It felt like an uninvited guest, and he was afraid it’d sneak into his body if he wasn’t careful, harming his path. He pushed his consciousness against the swirling characters, and they floated away.

In the next moment, he found himself back in the temple, and he had to once more find the monk who resonated with his heart. Soon enough, an identical swirl danced around Zac’s left hand, allowing him to take another step into the temple. It looked like he was stuck with this thing, at least until he left this trial.

Zac’s vision shifted, and he was now in the courtyard of a monastery. In front of him was a vast wall with thousands of plaques, each one inscribed with a short prayer. Zac didn’t spot a plaque that resonated with him, and tried taking one at random to see if it would allow him to get back to the temple.

It worked, but the second set of characters he’d summoned clashed with the first, resulting in both of them flying away. Zac swore with annoyance, a feeling that was further intensified when he realized he’d somehow been transported back to the entrance of the temple. He glanced back, and saw Three Virtues still standing outside with the same smile on his face.

Zac grunted with exasperation, but quickly regretted it when he found himself breathing a burst of flames. He calmed his mind and resumed his journey, effortlessly gathering the first snippet. He was soon transported to the prayer wall again, where he took some time until he finally found the one that resonated with his heart. Zac couldn’t pinpoint exactly why this specific tablet was the right one—he just knew it was.

As expected, the second line perfectly fused with the first this time around, allowing Zac to take another step into the temple. A mountain library filled with ancient scrolls unfurled before him, each one containing densely written sutras. It took Zac over ten minutes before he found the one that was his, and two lines dancing around him turned into three.

Like this, Zac continued forward, each step taking him one step closer to his goal—the shimmering crystal locked inside a glass cage on the other side of the building. Each step placed him in a new world, where he had to find truth among falsehoods. With each success, the yarn of swirling scripture around his body grew denser, more complete, but Zac still couldn’t quite figure out what kind of sutra it was.

Each success not only added to the scripture he was building, it also increased the difficulty of his next vision. Passing the fifteenth iteration, which required him to pick the correct pebble in a stone garden, took him half a day. There were four different stones that all felt fitting, and he was locked from indecision for hours until picking the right one.

Half a month later, Zac was sent back to the start just as he was about to reach the glass case. For the first time in days, he lost control, going through a tumultuous procession of transformations before he managed to calm his mind. He hurriedly made his way back, passing one trial after another.

Even after almost making it to the end, Zac couldn’t quite understand what he was doing. But for some reason, he was becoming a lot better at discerning what was true and what was false. The scroll that took him ten minutes to find the first time around was discovered in just three minutes after having reached the depths of the temple.

More importantly, the Creation Energy barely had any effect on him by this point. Small ripples still spread across his skin when he let his mind stray, but there weren’t any big mutations like in the beginning. Was this good or was it bad? Zac couldn’t tell, even as he entered a deeper state of tranquility.

Was it something sinister like hypnosis, of the emptying of one’s sensations? Or was this some sort of cultivation of the heart? Should he fight it or embrace it? It could be the key to dealing with the whispers of the Remnants, though he was hesitant to let this new sensation take hold. Especially knowing the dangers of the Sangha.

But he also realized he found himself incapable of reaching the deeper parts of the temple without entering this state.

Eventually, he chose to go with the flow, while holding onto his core principles in the depths of his soul. He also started rotating his outer cores based on the concepts in the [Nine Reincarnations Manual], which seemed to bring clarity to the emptiness. Eventually, Zac found himself back in the same village that had thrown him back to the starting point before.

This time, he was staring at a little boy who was helping grind ink for his father who was selling talismans in a small stall. It had taken Zac five days of walking through the streets, observing the fates of the mortals in this medieval village, but he was sure he was right this time. There was truth in every movement of the child.

In the grating sound as the dark-purple ink was being ground, in his steadfast expression, in how the stacks of talismans next to him were arranged. Zac walked over, but before he had a chance to speak, the little boy looked up and peered right into his eyes.

He was no longer a small boy in a small mountain village, even if his shape hadn’t changed at all. He had become a primordial deva, filled with boundless power. There was infinite potential brewing inside him. Potential for creation. Potential for destruction. It held the truths of the Six Paths, the truth of eternity.

“Golden. Boundless,” the boy said and the world crumbled.

67

SUBLIMATION

As the world collapsed and the small mountain village was reduced to nothingness, Zac found himself standing atop a boundless ocean beneath a golden sky. There was not a wave or a ripple, yet Zac couldn’t see what hid below.

However, he could feel it.

There was harmony. Tranquility. A sense of belonging. As long as he sunk into it, he would be part of it. Part of the unity, where all was one. The moment that thought struck him, he felt a tremendous attraction from beneath as distant chants carried across the waters. All was one, and heart was all.

Zac’s path had crystallized, and his heart had grown extremely sturdy after going through innumerable life-and-death struggles. But even he felt it difficult to resist the pull. To just close his eyes and meld with the oneness. It would not only grant strength, it would also free him from all suffering. It was almost like the ocean wanted to swallow him.

That sudden spark of cognizance startled something wide awake in the core of his being, and the tranquility of the boundless ocean no longer had the means to affect him. His heart beat and his soul roared while his cells opened wide with hunger. The sky rumbled, and swirling nothingness consumed the gold as it covered the Heavens.

It didn’t contain the wrath of the old Heavens or the indifference of the new. It contained hunger. An infinite hunger that surpassed the bounds of reality itself. If entering the ocean would mean him becoming one with all, the Void entailed being one with nothing.

Ripples appeared on the ocean, and founts started to rise toward the sky, the water clearly trying to resist the pull but failing. Zac looked back and forth, his role seeming like that of an observer, even if he knew he was the source of the churning void above.

Or rather, his bloodline was.

The world once more crumbled, and Zac looked around to see what he’d encounter next. He was surprised to find himself standing outside the temple with a glass case in his hands, staring into the surprised visage of Three Virtues as a golden scroll floated in the air. Zac was still in a transcendent state, and he closed his eyes to get a better feel of the situation.

After a few minutes, he confirmed this was all real. It wasn’t yet another layer of illusions to tempt his heart or trick his mind. He still couldn’t tell why he knew what he knew. He only knew that it was true. However, he did feel that this sense of certainty was slowly leaving his body.

It wasn’t because he was beset by a new round of illusion, the state of enlightenment he’d encountered was merely temporary—some sort of impartment left inside the temple by the monk. Perhaps the monk wanted to show him a path or even give him a taste of the benefits of cultivating the heart.

Even then, Zac felt no desire as the last vestiges of clarity left his body. That kind of path would probably allow him to deal with the lingering consciousness in the Remnants, where an immovable heart would be able to resist all temptations and see through all falsehoods. But he’d already staked out his path, and he was confident in his own abilities.

As for the final vision, Zac believed it was the true trial for the shard. The natural pull of the Buddhist Sangha. Succeed, and his foundations would further stabilize. Fail, and he would probably have become further linked to the Dharma, perhaps to the point he lost part of his self. However, his bloodline had thrown a wrench in the trial, being offended by the ocean’s influence. It had even gone so far as to forcibly swallow some of the boundless ocean, prompting the trial to end early.

It looked like not even Buddha could subdue the Void Emperor.

“Why?” Zac asked as he opened his eyes, feeling his mental state having returned to normal.

“Amitabha, Almsgiver,” Three Virtues smiled. “The Dharma is the greatest of all joys, the highest of all delights. Cessation of desire conquers all suffering, and it is the road to enlightenment.”

“Cessation,” Zac muttered before shaking his head with a smile, “is not for me. I am much too greedy. How long have I been inside?”

“No more than an hour,” Three Virtues said, and Zac felt he could discern some helplessness in the monk’s eyes for some reason.

Zac wasn’t too surprised that so little time had passed during the trial. Most likely, the illusions themselves hadn’t lasted more than a few seconds each. Most of the time had come from the steps in between and gathering his wits outside the temple.

“What is this?” Zac asked as he looked at the golden scroll hovering in front of him.

He recognized its aura quite clearly. The scripture he’d collected had not disappeared after he left. Instead, it formed an actual sutra by the looks of it, though Zac wasn’t able to tell whether the scroll was real or illusory. It was only partly unfurled, allowing Zac to see dozens of lines of text along with the image of a golden cultivator covered in an unfamiliar set of pathways.

The aura emanating from the scroll was somewhat familiar, giving off an undeniable hint of Life and Creation, but there was much more to it. Part of it reminded him of his own class, of the lofty temple of Arcadia that appeared when he activated [Rapturous Divide]. Unsurprisingly, another part reminded him of the power of Buddha.

“It is truly astounding, Almsgiver. We must be fated, after all,” Three Virtues said with obviously feigned surprise. “This poor monk desperately recited the sutras in front of this pagoda for years, hoping to contain the energies within. To think that Almsgiver managed to rearrange the fractured teachings of Buddha into the [Boundless Vajra Sublimation].”

Zac was rendered speechless by the level of shamelessness. The monk was clearly trying to force a Karmic link between himself and the Sangha, both by showcasing the value of Heart Cultivation and now throwing in a technique. However, Zac had to admit he was intrigued, both by the energy signature and by the name.

“Varja sublimation?” Zac asked. “A Body Tempering Manual?”

Body tempering was quite widely used among some chapters of the Buddhist Sangha, and there were monks as durable as Izh’Rak Reavers. In fact, Zac had actually seen a corner of their most wide-spread Body Tempering Technique back on Earth already—the [Diamond Sutra]. However, he had never heard of this [Boundless Vajra Sublimation] before.

“Just so,” Three Virtues nodded. “A foundational method to temper one’s flesh into one possessing boundless life. It quashes imperfections and elevates the divine, setting the stage for greater things in the future. It has unsurpassed compatibility and can be transitioned into a myriad of advanced techniques. It was created in the earliest era, and numerous great Dharma Guardians of the Sangha started with this method. A blessing, a blessing of the Heavens!”

“Why are you doing this?” Zac asked, obviously not buying the spiel.

“By illuminating the path for others, you also illuminate your own,” Three Virtues smiled.

“I cannot accept this,” Zac said. “As I said, my path is not the search of nirvana. This thing might end up hurting my cultivation.”

“Almsgiver need not worry. Not only have the warrior monks and arhats used this method with great success. Numerous friends of the Sangha have exchanged great merit for this technique, before transitioning it into other Body Tempering Techniques without any relation to us.”

Zac had to admit he was tempted after hearing the monk’s exhortations, but he still had a lot of reservations.

“Almsgiver, there is a difference between a living being and a being of Life,” the monk added, giving Zac a start. The monk’s smiling visage turned serious as he looked deep into Zac’s eyes. “Almsgiver, are you truly in balance?”

Zac looked at the small monk, once more beset by the uncomfortable feeling of having all his secrets exposed. He’d even activated his protective array around his Duplicity Core before coming here, but it was probably much too late to change anything. Of course, Zac understood what the monk was digging at.

His trinity of Life, Death, and Conflict wasn’t in a true state of balance, depending on how you looked at it. His Daos were in perfect tune with his path thanks to his hard work in the Orom World, but could the same be said about his races? His Death-side was represented by a Draugr, a race born from the Abyssal Lake, one of the purest representations of Death in the Multiverse. It cultivated Miasma since birth, essentially meaning it had a natal Death-attuned Physique.

Meanwhile, his other side was human. That was it. A bog-standard race of the Multiverse, where his unique point was that he would get whatever benefits his other side got. However, it was not, like Three Virtues called it, a being of Life. His human side didn’t use Divine Energy to match the Miasma of his Draugr side, but simple unattuned energy.

Technically, this [Boundless Vajra Sublimation] could be the key to addressing this imbalance, but it brought up many questions. First and foremost—did he really need it? Would a Life-attuned constitution on his human side even benefit him? Did every part of his cultivation need to be mirrored in this way?

Ultimately, the trinity was based on Dao, not body.

Secondly, could he even cultivate this thing? What effect would it have on his bloodline? Would it result in a clash like the one in his vision, where the void assaulted the boundless nature of Buddhism?

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, did he even dare cultivate this thing even if he wanted to? Growing up, he’d been taught not to look a gifted horse in the mouth, but the opposite was true out in the Multiverse. Three Virtues wouldn’t just give away a precious Body Tempering Manual without purpose, no matter what flowery words he spouted.

At best, it would force him to continue cultivating some Buddhist techniques, binding him tighter to the Buddhist Sangha. But what if there were more sinister concepts hidden within the [Boundless Vajra Sublimation]? What if he ended up an empty vessel the moment he completed his physique? After all, brainwashing was the forte of these monks.

“I need to consider this,” Zac said. “Can I store this thing somehow?”

“If you determine your course with force or speed, you will miss the path to enlightenment,” Three Virtues nodded. “However, this poor monk has to insist Almsgiver learn the contents by heart before leaving. Almsgiver has seized this opportunity through fate and good merits, but we cannot let a complete copy of the sutra be released into the world.”

Did the monk expect Zac to give in to temptation and train this technique after learning all the benefits it could provide? Zac had to admit, it was a pretty good plan. Even then, Zac went ahead and grabbed the hovering scroll, much to the monk’s delight. The next moment, he felt a massive surge of information cramming into his brain—hundreds of books’ worth of text.

There were postures you could train in, scriptures that sped up the process, tens of thousands of treasures that could aid in the formation of a Golden Vajra Physique. There were even chapters on Heart Cultivation and alternative methods to train, such as tattoos and clones. It was a veritable treasure trove of knowledge, and it was with great reluctance Zac sealed that knowledge in a corner of his mind before he turned to the happily smiling monk.

“Well, it’s time for me to head out,” Zac said. “Thank you for all your help. I’ll remember the benevolence of your eminence.”

“Almsgiver is too kind. But if this one can give one final suggestion?”

“What’s that?” Zac asked.

“Almsgiver has no need to rush. Providence is accumulating, but it has yet not reached a crescendo. The time when fate is most malleable will arrive very soon.” Three Virtues smiled.

Zac slowly nodded in thanks before leaving the small temple, the droning sounds of the still-meditating monks traveling with him through the bamboo forest. Only when the decorated bamboo poles gave way to the vibrant steppes outside did he dare relax. He’d done it. He’d secured the means of escape.

However, Zac was a bit lost, having expected he needed to absorb the Remnants the moment he seized them. Zac had even wagered that was the ultimate goal of Three Virtues—to force the appearance of a Glimpse of Chaos right by his temple. This guess was obviously wrong, but the odd encounter in the temple didn’t make things any clearer.

It was too annoying dealing with Karmic experts.

The only thing Zac could be certain of was that every action of Three Virtues had a purpose, from the short chat in front of the statue of Sāgara to displaying the benefits of Heart Cultivation. But it could be anything from advancing the monk’s plans in the Orom World to something thousands of years in the future.

The only clue Zac had was the monk’s final recommendation. He clearly wanted Zac to wait a bit before absorbing the Remnants. It was the one thing where he was completely candid. And even that simple suggestion felt like a mindbender after the mentally exhausting visit. Was it a real suggestion or was it reverse psychology?

Should he just go ahead and absorb those things immediately? Would doing so sabotage his attempt by making his move early?

As Zac made his way toward his small island, he ultimately chose to wait a bit. He was dealing with an Autarch, and it wasn’t like he was trying to slip out unnoticed. Forming a Glimpse of Chaos was a real spectacle, and he risked drawing both the attention and ire of the Orom before he could teleport away. If fate really was congregating for some reason, such as the monks preparing some scheme, it would provide a good cover.

Two months. Zac decided he’d give it two months, leaving roughly four weeks to spare before the Remnants had to be returned. If nothing happened by then, he’d leave and not look back.

Zac didn’t bother returning to Samsara’s Edge. He was all out of Purchase Points, having bought the [Hollow Core] in addition to the Heavenrender Vine Seed, something that was only possible through his multiple breakthroughs. Even then, he’d been forced to take a pretty big loss.

Even after forming two Boundless Dao Branches, forcibly elevating his levels, soul, and then improving his Integration Stage, he’d been lacking some points. Only by selling off a mountain of resources for 8,000 Purchase Points was he able to afford the second Supreme treasure. It pained him, but trading a bunch of expensive, yet common on the outside, materials for a unique treasure was definitely worth it.

Soon enough, Zac was back in his hidden cultivation chamber, and he took out the first of the two glass boxes. Kaldor’s protective runes were gone, and tendrils of darkness left painful cracks on Zac’s arms. As expected, it released a continuous amount of Oblivion Energy, though this one felt raw and wild compared to what was released from the prison in his mind.

Zac didn’t try to break open the casing, instead setting it at the heart of a formation at the right side of the cave, letting the Oblivion Energy fuse with the Miasma that was dragged from the Death-attuned zone. Next, he did the same thing with the shard, turning his cultivation cave into something unique, something containing hints of both Creation and Oblivion.

The two Remnants stirred upon being placed in such close proximity, but the seals on the casings were something else, preventing the Remnants from awakening altogether.

This was the best Zac solution could think of, where he could make use of the marvelous cultivation cave and the Remnants until his deadline. The energy released through the runic funnel in his mind was pure, but the amount was also quite limited. Far less compared to what was released from this newly acquired set.

Like this, weeks passed, where Zac silently practiced the [Nine Reincarnations Manual], mentally preparing himself for the ordeal of forming a Glimpse of Chaos. There were no disturbances, but as the days passed, he actually felt a strange sense building. It wasn’t his soul getting stronger, though using the Remnants was definitely effective in empowering the attunement of the outer cores.

It was just like Three Virtues said. It was like a storm was gathering, a hurricane of fate. The feeling was similar to his danger sense, making him believe it was related to his latest boost in Luck. It was a welcome new ability, and it was about time he gained something new from the attribute. After all, his Effective Luck had almost doubled since entering the Twilight Ocean.

Then one day, the storm arrived.

The arrays in the cave sputtered and failed as the orbs illuminating the chamber dimmed, prompting Zac’s eyes to shoot open with glee. There was still a week until his planned escape, a month before the deadline for the Remnants. But just as the monk indicated, an opportunity had presented itself prematurely.

The Orom World had entered a dark state.

Whether it was a sign from above or a direct consequence of Three Virtues’ schemes, Zac didn’t know, and ultimately, it didn’t matter. The Orom might have encountered some outside threat forcing it to reroute all its power from the Orom World to itself rather than quelling an internal insurgency. In either case, it meant the big bastard had run into trouble.

The thought alone prompted a smile to appear on Zac’s face, the schadenfreude far outweighing the disappointment of his Soul Strengthening session ending early. The more pressing the issues the Orom had to deal with, the more he would be able to accomplish in the dark.

As expected, Zac felt a wave of weakness spread through his body as his prison brand flickered, and just moving became a chore. He could still circulate a trickle of energy, but it was barely enough to maintain basic bodily functions. Thankfully, activating [Void Zone] and covering himself in Void Energy counteracted the effect enough for him to move freely. Enough to accomplish his tasks.

He turned into a blur as he swept through the cave like a hurricane, stowing away the few items he hadn’t already secured, most notably his cultivation arrays, [Mind’s Eye Agate], and the twinned Realm Spirits. Finally, he grabbed the two glass casings, ignoring their anger at being so close together, before rushing to the surface of the island.

Only to be met by a sky set on fire.

68

GATHERING STORM

Far different from the descriptions of the Orom World going dark, it had instead been turned into a conflagration of flames that elicited a primal fear in Zac’s heart. They reminded Zac of the apocalyptic force he saw when forming his Seeds of Hardness and Sanctuary. When that ancient protector had sacrificed himself to protect his world against the end of a universe.

That kind of judgment had descended on the Orom World. There were no Heavens, there was no Law of Space. The Dao itself was being incinerated by the inferno above.

Thankfully, something was holding it back, either the Orom or the originator of the attack himself, preventing the brunt of the terrifying energy from descending. Zac wasn’t sure even Kaldor would survive if those flames lashed out on the cultivators below. Just looking at the roiling tongues of fire left scorch marks on his body, forcing him to avert his gaze. Enduring them would extinguish him in an instant, and no [Void Zone] or other preparations would do him any good.

At first, he figured it was the monks making their move, but he immediately shot down that idea. This couldn’t possibly be the work of a Monarch, meaning it should come from the outside. Perhaps a true Boddhisatva had tracked down the Orom to punish it with cleansing fire, but Zac didn’t sense the echoes of the Buddhist Sangha in the flames. They were pure and unrelenting, like the primal fires that could both birth and extinguish an era.

Even if the flames didn’t originate from within the Orom World, there were still people ready to take advantage of the chaos. Zac didn’t even get the chance to take in the scene before eruptions of unbridled power appeared in multiple directions. To his left, coruscating waves of Divinity rippled in every direction, and Zac looked on with mute incomprehension as a towering golden deity rose into the air.

It appeared in the direction of the bamboo forest, and if there had been any doubt before about Three Virtues’ involvement, it was gone now. After all, it was the avatar of Sāgara who had been conjured, the statue he’d seen just a few months ago. The avatar had to be tens of thousands of meters tall, yet it somehow seemed greater.

Space and scale couldn’t properly do it justice—as though the deity were the size of the cosmos itself. Zac only dared shoot occasional glances in its direction, as his heart was being moved from witnessing its splendor. If Zac wasn’t careful, he’d become a warrior of the Dharma with all of his emotions expunged.

The enormous avatar put its hands together in a mudra, and Zac vaguely heard the chanting of sutras even from this great distance. Millions and millions of lotus flowers were born in the sky, almost shrouding the fiery inferno above. However, the delicate white flowers didn’t seem to have any intention of contending with the flames above.

Instead, they were nurtured by it, growing just like normal flowers under the sun. Together, they danced in a nonexistent wind, the petals setting up some sort of array that filled Zac with dread. The scene was mesmerizing, and Zac suddenly felt his vision shifting, finding himself standing inside a vast temple where each lotus flower had been transformed into a golden statue.

The next moment the vision was gone, but Zac wondered if the monks had somehow connected this space with an actual temple somewhere in the Multiverse. Just what were they planning?

The monks weren’t the only ones who had made their move. A pitch-black tower had appeared to Zac’s right, and looking at it felt like looking at the true face of Death. Even the roiling flames above were somewhat dampened by the darkness the structure radiated, though Zac could tell the tower didn’t dare grow too tall to avoid drawing the ire from what was above.

Zac could even sense powerful fluctuations further in the distance in almost every direction of the Orom World, but it was too far away for him to see what was going on. One thing was for sure though—the seal of the prison brand was obviously not as absolute as the Orom thought, for these kinds of things to appear out of nowhere.

Things had clearly been brewing beneath the surface since long before Zac arrived.

The chaotic scene had thrown Zac off-balance, but he quickly gathered his wits. So what if things were chaotic? Wasn’t that exactly what this moment required? It almost felt like the whole world had gone mad as a result of his desire, the desire to drown the Orom World with Chaos.

Now, it was time to leave his own mark on the tapestry.

There was a good chance the Orom would enact an even harsher lockdown now that things were spiraling out of control, so Zac didn’t dare waste any more time. He took out one of his semi-finished teleportation arrays and urgently spent the next few minutes fixing the final engravings while fearfully glancing at the sky in case something changed.

Thankfully, things were still gearing up, giving Zac enough breathing room to finalize his preparations. He only left one final inscription unfinished on the array before taking it out of harm’s way, placing it on the shores on the other side of the lake. He knew all-too-well what came next, and he felt some lingering fear as his gaze turned to the two glass boxes lying on the ground. He couldn’t have his escape pod destroyed by a wave of Oblivion.

Cracks had already started to appear on the two glass canisters—the trapped Remnants were waking up. With the Orom draining the environment of its ambient energy, the glass cages had lost their main source of power. With Zac also maintaining [Void Zone] they were barely holding on against the burst of energy coming from within.

With the boxes in such close proximity, the slumbering Remnants had truly become aware of each other. They were furiously trying to break free to attack their nemesis, and parts of the arrays were whittled down with every clash. Still, Zac estimated it would take a few more minutes before the seals succumbed, and Zac didn’t have that kind of time.

After being hidden inside his Spatial Ring for years, [Verun’s Bite] finally made its appearance. A furious howl filled with anger and liberation was released as Zac completely unleashed the stored energy in his [Spiritual Void], and the whole lake churned in response as Zac swung his companion for the first time in too long.

Eight streams of Mental Energy entwined into a sturdy rope before entering the axe. Half of them were infused with the unstoppable potential for destruction of the Branch of the War Axe, and the other half with the undeniable force of the Branch of the Kalpataru. The golden markings across the Spirit Tool lit up with golden luster as the weapon was flooded with the Dao, but the sheen was almost drowned in a sanguine brilliance released from the runes on the handle.

The axe fell, and the world grew quiet before an earth-shattering shockwave leveled all the trees on the whole island. However, Zac’s eyes became wide as saucers when his mighty swing empowered by his bloodline and his Dao didn’t so much as leave a mark on the glass casing holding the Splinter of Oblivion.

Zac had visualized a scene of the cage shattering like brittle ice in the face of his fury, but reality wasn’t quite so satisfying. However, Zac wasn’t discouraged. There was a good chance these glass casings were made from some extraordinary materials, but he thankfully had a backup plan.

He was about to stow away his axe, but a wave of reluctance filled his heart while a similar sentiment was conveyed from the Tool Spirit. Instead, he hung it through a loop on his belt while forming two new streams in his mind—once more a combination of Life and Conflict. But this time, the streams didn’t enter his hands or his weapon, but rather the two unique pathways on his shoulders.

Activating the modified skill fractals for [Cyclic Strike] had an immediate effect as the purified Creation Energy spread throughout his body eagerly started to gather. His body was chock-full of energy from both Remnants by this point, all in preparation for this very day. A glistening rune appeared between his hands, where endless possibilities resided inside its depths.

This was the second time Zac had unleashed an Origin Mark since forming the Branch of the Kalpataru, and he was still mesmerized by the Dao Branch’s effect on the skill. Before, the mark was a completely foreign object created by circumstance, but he could feel a tendril of his own presence inside it now.

He wouldn’t go so far as to say he had control, but it definitely wouldn’t blow up by surprise any longer. More importantly, he felt he would soon be able to further mold the mark, turning it into something greater than a ball of unfettered Creation. For now, he believed that a normal mid-powered mark should do the trick.

Zac pushed the ball of Creation against the glass, and he smiled when the sealed Remnant inside went insane upon feeling its antithesis encroaching on its domain. The glass might be extremely sturdy, but the energy generated by the Remnants was inexhaustible, and the array was already worn down. Besides, it relied on the trapped Remnant being in a sleeping state, which was no longer the case.

At the same time, Creation seeped into the esoteric runes on the glass casing’s surface, twisting them with its mad desire for change. The formation resisted, but it simply had no energy to draw from, and was fast losing ground. Just the occasional fractal pattern that broke apart or shifted, but that was enough to cause a cascading ripple of change across the array.

Soon enough, a crack echoed out, and Zac was almost blasted off the island by a tremendous burst of Oblivion. Sharp shards of glass had embedded themselves in his body, and a good chunk of the island was simply erased, but Zac ignored the pain as he kept breaking the cage apart. He was almost there.

For the umpteenth time in the past weeks, he tried to initiate a negotiation with the System, but even if he heard a slight pressure that might indicate the System’s presence, he got no response. Zac didn’t know if the System was calling his bluff, knowing Zac couldn’t just skip the formation of another glimpse.

A more likely scenario was that the events in the Twilight Chasm were unique, where a creature that shouldn’t exist had been nurtured in an E-grade trial. The huge snake had broken the balance of the Trial, and the System intervening could be seen as an attempt to restore order. Normally, it wouldn’t have become an issue since no trial-taker should have been able to survive in that depth.

Alvod had probably paid the appropriate price to make the System look the other way, maintaining the Law of Balance. Until Zac arrived. Thus, an anomaly had occurred, forcing the System’s hand. Outside of grade-restricted trials, there were no such rules of conduct—this place might as well be the Wild West.

Even then, Zac didn’t give up. He might be able to seize something at the last moment.

The temperature in the Orom World was steadily rising, though that was probably the least of the prisoner’s worries. The Buddhist chants kept growing louder, and Zac felt his mind under assault as he saw glimpses of that mysterious temple over and over. Meanwhile, golden scripts had started to dance around the innumerable lotus flowers in the sky in a display of both might and beauty.

Zac doubted the tremendous waves of faith targeted him specifically, though he couldn’t be sure about the prisoners in general. Was a mass conversion about to take place in the Orom World? To bring half a million top geniuses into the fold of the Dharma? Even for a peak faction like Buddhist Sangha, it had to be considered a decent win.

Thankfully, it turned out that [Void Zone] was quite effective at muting the attraction of the Buddhist Chants, though it was only a temporary repose. He was simply too weak to stave off the mental influence permanently, but it wasn’t like he planned on staying behind for too long anyway. The Creation from outside and the Oblivion from inside had finally caused enough damage, and the powerful array on the glass cage couldn’t maintain its functions any longer.

Leaking cracks turned into a gaping hole as the High-grade glass broke apart, and Zac’s hand pushed through the shards to grab the splinter. At this moment, the Remnants in his mind fully awoke, having confirmed another of their brethren waited outside. This time the roles were reversed, with the splinters trying to break out while the shards hampered their efforts.

The sutras were completely silenced, and the world had grown oppressively silent as Zac held the Splinter of Oblivion. In reality, it was the Remnant that had crushed all sound, annihilated fate, leaving only nothingness in Zac’s surroundings. The sense of nihility seemed to stretch toward eternity as the world slowed, and then there was only darkness as the third Splinter of Oblivion entered Zac’s body.

* * *

Iz marveled at the beauty of her surroundings from her vantage inside her uncle’s eye. She’d grown up playing on his body, but the opportunities for her to see the true essence of his flames were rare.

All Daos had their strong points and weaknesses, but her grandpa had said it all converged toward the peak. When you completely grasped a Dao, it was whatever you needed it to be. Your truth would become equal to the will of the Heavens, and Valderak was right at that threshold. His flames surpassed both time and space, becoming a supreme law as he unleashed his might.

The Void itself was incinerated as flames stretched across the horizon, and even the nearby stars dimmed in obeisance. In the middle of it all, a big fish furiously thrashed, but it was locked in place by the Sixteen Pillars of Anguish. The mutated Voidcatcher was unleashing tremendous ripples of space, though it was ultimately just a second-step Primordial Beast.

No matter if it was raw strength, heritage, or Dao, her uncle was far superior. The big fish might as well have been a Hegemon. To the Primordial Golem known across the Multiverse as the Empyrean Mountain, it made no difference. Even then, it struggled, desperately trying to break open the dimensional layer.

“Serves you right for eluding us for over a year,” Iz muttered before she turned to her uncle standing next to her. “You won’t burn the people inside, right?”

“My flames are not targeted at the captives, so it should be fine,” Valderak’s avatar answered with a shrug. “If people still die, they simply aren’t fated. But don’t worry, your little friend will be fine.”

Iz turned toward the fifty-meter-tall glass pane that was her uncle’s eye.

“What friend? He’s…” Iz’s voice died down as her brows furrowed.

Just what was he? Even now, she couldn’t put her finger on it. There was just something about him, something novel. But what? He wasn’t too powerful, though Iz guessed he should be one of the strongest people at his grade in this desolate corner of space. Even among the ancient factions, he could be considered a rare talent in terms of raw strength.

Except, she’d met many people like that already during the outings her uncle and grandpa had tricked her to participate in, and she was always filled with annoyance when dealing with those people. Yet she found herself using the Divine Mirror almost every day for a few hours, even when Mr. Bug just sat in silent meditation.

At first, it was curiosity about the one who dared to curse at her, but it somehow became a hobby she enjoyed far more than any of the arrays her guardians had prepared. Even that Neural Network of the Technocrats or the Heavenly Realm of the ancient imperials became boring over time. But watching that guy bathe in fateblighted refuse or getting beat up by low-grade beasts never grew stale.

In a way, he was the antithesis of herself. He was a blank slate, with no backing and no idea what he was doing. But he was also free.

“Have you decided what you will do when you meet him?” her uncle asked curiously.

“Well…” Iz hesitated. “First, I’ll beat him up a bit for calling me crazy. After that, we’ll see. Perhaps I’ll have him take me to some trial? I want to experience his ability to cause all this chaos firsthand. I don’t want to go back too quickly now that grandpa finally allowed me to leave. Who knows when I’ll get to travel again after this?”

“Master worries for you,” Valderak sighed. “He fears the fate of your parents will repeat itself.”

Iz nodded, a pang of sorrow filling her heart at recalling the sealed form of her mother. Even with her grandpa’s efforts, it would be tens of thousands of years before Eruz Tayn could wake up. The battle had been too intense back then, and not even her grandmother had been able to directly retrieve her soul from the past.

Of course, a few thousand years was nothing compared to the two million years her mother had been sealed already, most of which Iz had spent gestating inside Eruz’s womb. Her grandfather had waited so long and worked so hard to piece her soul together by scouring billions of temporal fractures in the past. Even then, there was no coming back for her father.

Their enemies had made sure of that.

“Grandma killed all those people millions of years ago already. She even incinerated a whole universe, fraying the Heavens themselves. Who’d dare target me? And what would be the point? Just to anger my elders again?” Iz muttered.

“Never underestimate the lengths people will go in pursuit of the peak. The old enemies are gone, but new ones will crop up so long as the Tayns control a corner of the sky,” Valderak urged.

“Alright, alright,” Iz agreed, having heard the same warning so many times before.

It looked like Valderak was about to continue, but he suddenly stopped and turned toward the Voidcatcher. “Oh?”

“What’s wrong?” Iz asked with worry, trying to discern what changed.

“Fate is gathering, and I sense fluctuations at the threshold of Autarchy inside the Orom’s inner world,” the golem said with some interest. “The Sangha and the unliving are making a move. More importantly, there was a weak burst of Oblivion just now.”

“What? He’s starting? We made it in time!” Iz exclaimed, her mouth curving upward.

Just like inside that Life-Death trial of his, things were coming to a boiling point. This time, she wouldn’t miss it.

“Wait, do you think we’re part of the storm of fate he accumulated?” Iz asked curiously.

“It’s hard to say where the line between coincidence and fate lies,” Valderak said. “But he is undoubtedly the fulcrum.”

Iz’s brows furrowed with displeasure. “This stupid fish keeps buckling and I can’t see anything. Can you send me in?”

“Absolutely not!” Valderak said without hesitation. “The energies within are getting too chaotic. Don’t worry, we have some time. I’ll toast this bastard a bit more and make it spit out the boy.”

Iz reluctantly nodded, and a tragic wail echoed through the cosmos.

69

MOUNTING THREAT

The lightning-scorched tower had finally crumbled, unable to withstand time and the madness of its master. In the rubble, she sat, her heart burning with hatred and her hands covered in ash. Hatred against what, she no longer remembered. The ashes of whom, she could no longer recall. She’d given it all up for power.

Yet now, only emptiness remained.

Zac barely had time to digest the miserable scene before he was whisked away to another, witnessing outbursts of madness and despair. It was just like his previous encounters, with one worrying difference—it all felt so real. Before, the scenes had been visceral, nearly to the point they could leave a mark on his mind. But now, they’d become so much more.

His soul was far superior compared to when he last absorbed a Remnant, yet he found himself struggling to hold on to his sanity as the Splinter of Oblivion unleashed its manic obsession. The parasitic consciousness hidden within the crystal had come out in full force, and doubts kept invading Zac’s path.

He’d seen his absorbing these things as a necessary evil, a risky gamble to more quickly gain power. But what if he’d already unknowingly fallen to the ploy of the Remnants, blindly grasping for more when his true self should have long realized something was wrong? The moment he learned of the third set, he’d not even hesitated when risking his life to seize them. Even when he already held the means of escape through the Perennial Vastness Token.

Why?

He had always known he was a pawn in someone’s game, be it the System’s or the Remnants themselves. Yet he never questioned their end game, and just figured he’d ride it out and walk away a stronger man. Why? Was that how a resource was used? No, it was squeezed of all its benefits and discarded before the master went looking for the next useful idiot to exploit.

Doubts, hesitation, and regrets kept rising to the surface, even rehashing his failures during the earliest months of the integration. Knowing that it was the result of absorbing the Remnant didn’t help either. If anything, it added another layer of torture. Zac was aware he was being tricked into this state, yet he couldn’t break it, which only further fed into the insecurities he’d gained from being peppered by the visions.

Trying to logically dispel his doubts was fruitless. He wasn’t dealing with something that could be reasoned with. Reiterating the fact there was nothing he could have done for his father—that he returned as quickly as possible to Greenworth did nothing to allay the guilt. The misery threatened to consume him, drown him.

Soon enough, Zac barely registered the incessant visions, stuck in his own private hell instead. If only he could quench these thoughts. Extinguish everything.

The thought cut through his distress like a knife, with warning bells immediately going off. The unwelcome thought had properly woken him up, and he realized just how dangerous a situation he’d been in. He was standing right at the precipice. If he gave in to that feeling, Oblivion—or rather that ancient consciousness—would consume him.

The situation was bad, but Zac still didn’t try to remember and regain that tranquil state he enjoyed during Three Virtues’ trial, where nothing could affect him. Neither did he break open his self-imposed seal on the [Boundless Vajra Sublimation] to recite the heart-calming sutras it contained.

That was not his path.

Instead, he focused on his goals rather than his failures, holding onto the vision of Thea being lifted into the air by his mother, of Kenzie being whisked away. The focus wasn’t that he couldn’t protect them—how could he against someone like Leandra Kayar-Elu? Instead, he focused on how his sister needed to be rescued and Thea needed to be avenged.

He focused on Earth being like a small raft about to be flung into a raging ocean as the Zecia Sector was on the verge of being embroiled in war. Of Ogras and Billy stuck in some pocket of space, their fate unknown after having risked their lives to save his sister and Earth. There were so many people he owed, so many things he needed to accomplish. He refused to get pushed down by his mistakes or bogged down by hesitation. He would keep moving forward, and some fractured spirit from a bygone era would never be able to change that fact.

Neither would he drink the poisonous waters of the Dharma to quench his thirst. He had faith he would be able to accomplish his goals without their aid. Eventually, Zac took a shuddering breath as he opened his eyes. He was back in his own body, and time was starting up again.

That was way too close.

Zac had been overconfident. Believing that after surviving the Calamity A’Zu warned of and then performing a perfect reincarnation, absorbing the third set of Remnants would proceed without a snag. But if one could survive the Remnants just by cultivating one’s soul, then why did everyone in the visions succumb sooner or later?

It had become painfully clear that a powerful soul wasn’t enough to deal with the madness hidden within the Splinter of Oblivion. Its energy couldn’t just pollute his soul—its attack on Zac’s heart was just as formidable, and harder to both notice and defend against.

The distant Buddhist chants resumed as Zac exited his special state, the air veritably vibrating with Dharmic power. However, it was drowned out by the railing madness from within. Zac had passed the first hurdle, and the splinter was already on a rampage. It found his mind, and his Soul Aperture was being drowned in Oblivion.

The Divine Cores in his mind had been put on a defensive, barely holding on with the protection of his Branch of the Kalpataru. Meanwhile, his Branch of the Pale Seal was infiltrating the waves of annihilation, channeling some of the rampaging energy into his Miasmic Cores. Zac knew this was an opportunity for cultivation, but the surroundings were crazy enough as it were.

His powerful soul might have failed in protecting his heart, but its benefits soon became apparent as layer after layer sealed the rampaging splinter within, barely letting a trickle of energy escape. It furiously slammed against the cage Zac erected, but even if it managed to break the innermost layers, there were almost a dozen more it had to deal with to escape.

The war inside his Remnant prison had entered a fever pitch as well, but Zac wasn’t worried. The sealing fractals were in pristine condition thanks to the System fixing them the last time around, and it wasn’t like it would need to withstand the clashes for long.

Seeing that the situation was as stable as it could be when dealing with ancient madness in a world literally set on fire, Zac breathed out in relief as his gaze turned toward the second glass box. However, he froze with understanding. Something else was different with this round. He didn’t get to meet Be’Zi during his spiritual journey.

Had she blocked him from coming over again, tired of getting her cultivation interrupted every few years? Or was it the System that felt there was no need to align their fate any longer since the quest for five sets of Remnants had already been agreed upon?

A wave of searing pain derailed his thoughts, and Zac was aghast at the thought of embers from the ferocious flames in the sky falling down on him. Thankfully, Zac realized it wasn’t the flames that had attacked him, even if the situation was a bit thorny.

The brand on his arm had awakened and it was unleashing sinister energies into his body. Like a spiritual acid instilled with a purpose, and Zac felt both his cells and pathways being destroyed at a rapid pace. Did it realize he was about to break out? Had it sensed Zac freed one of the Remnants?

While Zac was annoyed at the interruption, his [Void Zone] was already weakening the brand, and his [Void Heart] had begun its feast on the invading energy. It was a shame his natural poison resistance wasn’t quite as good in his human form, but that didn’t mean he was out of options.

He opened a small hole in the barriers trapping the Splinter of Oblivion in his Soul Aperture, and a storm of Oblivion Energy was immediately spat out by the enraged Remnant. Another layer of small cracks spread across the empty space of his soul, and Zac felt his mind turn a bit numb.

This was the first time he had a free splinter raging in his body, with the previous two sets being instantly thrown behind bars. He could tell that using the Remnant’s energy would work just fine. In fact, the splinter would love it. After all, using its wild energies had a price different from the shard—where the shard damaged his body and lifeforce, the splinter damaged his soul and mind.

In a way, it was even scarier to use than Creation Energy, even if its price wasn’t as readily apparent. You could recover some of the longevity you’d lost, but recovering broken pieces of your mind—memories, emotions, and convictions—that was a far trickier subject. He wasn’t sure there would even be any warning signs. Eventually, he’d just stare around in confusion like all those people in the visions.

Therefore, Zac urgently dragged the energy out of his soul and into his body, wanting to waste as little time as possible. It pushed forward like a tidal wave, swallowing the invading energies and leaving not even ashes in its wake. It was risky circulating pure Oblivion, but as long as he controlled the energy, he could choose what it would target.

The wave of Oblivion destroyed the prison brand’s assault in less than a second before reaching the brand itself. Another wave of agony erupted on his arm, but he was shocked to see that the brand didn’t break from the collision. This was why he’d chosen to absorb Oblivion first—to get rid of his seal before taking on the Shard of Creation.

Instead, Zac found the rune protected by a thin barrier containing the same laws of space that made up the borders in this realm. Zac could sense it was weakening, but he also felt his control of the wave of Oblivion slipping through his fingers. If nothing was done, he’d end up disintegrating his hand.

At first, he planned on simply discarding the energy, letting it swallow a chunk of the island. However, things were heating up in the Orom World, both literally and metaphorically. The lotus flowers kept perpetuating, covering a larger and larger piece of the sky as they started to descend toward the ground.

Meanwhile, the chants had grown more invasive, and even if he was mostly insulated through the Remnant destroying all energy that entered his mind, the visions of all those statues kept appearing at shorter and shorter intervals. It’d become an ominous countdown of sorts, and Zac wanted to be gone before it reached the end.

The situation on Kaldor’s side was changing as well, though Zac didn’t feel any threat from their direction. Most of the tower that appeared had collapsed, leaving a metal framework reminiscent of those support structures for spaceships behind, but there was no vessel next to it. Instead, a huge femur radiating unreal levels of force was fastened inside.

It was massive, its shape clearly discernable even from this great distance. It had to be at least a kilometer tall, which was confusing since it emitted the same type of aura Kaldor did. Not that the bone belonged to the Reaver himself, but perhaps to some ancestor of his. After all, it seemed as though it might have belonged to an Autarch, making Zac wonder just how it had appeared in the Orom World without the Orom noticing.

The setup reminded Zac of a gargantuan wall-breaker aimed at the ground itself, and he shuddered as the huge femur started to rise as runes lit up across its surface. Any delay felt risky, so Zac chose to go ahead with Plan B. He flashed a few meters, appearing in front of the still-intact glass cage, and unleashed the torrent of annihilation right at it.

A wave of darkness flooded out from his hands, utterly drenching the area in impenetrable gloom. The scene lasted less than a second before the energy disappeared with a crackling sound, prompting a small tempest as air rushed to fill the vacuum the attack created. Left behind was only a cracked glass cage inside a ten-meter crater, and powerful tendrils of pure Creation radiated out from the fractures.

The cage was on the verge of breaking, so Zac jumped into the hole and seized the Remnant the moment the seal shattered, ignoring the bleeding gashes as he gripped the Shard of Creation. A primordial clap of thunder joined the chaotic scene above, but Zac didn’t have time to see whether the System had arrived. The visions had claimed him once more.

Zac became an unwilling compatriot to predecessors mixed up with the Shards of Creation. Over and over, he witnessed scenes of futile resistance followed by inevitable tragedy. Most of those who got themselves entwined with the Spark of Creation had done so not out of greed or megalomania, but out of a desire to help.

To protect their companions, to tame inhospitable surroundings, to make the impossible possible, and seize an opportunity for survival. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and the best outcomes in the visions were those who managed to kill themselves before they destroyed those around them as their desires drove them insane.

Yet Zac was different—he could feel it. He’d witnessed how he was chosen by fate, walking off with rich rewards in situations where anyone else would have died. Where these people failed, he would prosper. He only needed to grasp the power within and subvert the Heavens themselves. He just—

Zac shuddered and forcibly quelled the mad impulses and rampant hubris that spread to the core of his very being. He’d been prepared for his heart to be attacked after the previous encounter, yet he almost found himself failing right out the gate. Once more, he held onto his path, his goals. And more importantly, he held onto himself.

It was true he had his unique strengths, but being a genius didn’t matter in the Multiverse. Only power mattered. So what if he was stronger than most E-grade cultivators? Any Late Hegemon like Traprandar or Olgoroth could squash him like a bug on the outside without the prison brand to protect him. Even early Hegemons would be hard for him to take down if they possessed powerful-enough War Regalia.

What was there to be proud of?

Everyone who reached the later stages of cultivation had overcome innumerable challenges, succeeding where trillions failed. He couldn’t get complacent, thinking that some D-grade Remnant would allow him to bring about earth-shattering changes. It was better to rely on himself, to progress one step at a time until he held true power.

Soon enough, he was back in his own body, and his mind screamed of danger as he felt the Shard of Creation making a beeline for the trapped splinter. Above, thick lightning clouds were gathering, pushing away the flames and lotus petals alike. However, Zac’s eyes thinned when he saw the strings of Buddhist scripture rising toward the churning clouds.

Was Three Virtues trying to siphon power from the System itself?

Zac had no time to bother about the plans of the Sangha, and it wasn’t like the clouds above were tribulation clouds that could benefit him. He’d played with the idea of using these lightning bolts to temper himself as he had with the tribulation lightning, but remembering Uona’s end, he wouldn’t dare try something like that.

At least not before he became a Hegemon.

The two Remnants inside his body were going all out, and their energy reserves easily surpassed the two he’d picked up inside the Twilight Ocean. Was it because they’d been sealed all this time, accumulating energy while the previous set had been free to unleash waves of destruction on their surroundings?

Zac didn’t mind. Any extra energy was a welcome addition. Zac had even more to spare, and a snap echoed out in his mind as he forced open the gates to his Remnant prison. Four shimmering lights emerged from the hidden pocket dimension with wild abandon, joining their two brethren in a struggle for supremacy.

His soul cried as his eleven cores were drowned in waves of turbulent powers. There was no way for his Mental Energy to restrain all six Remnants, and he didn’t know what would happen first—his aperture bursting or his Soul Cores being destroyed. He could only open his mental seal to his aperture, and soon enough, the war spread to every corner of his body.

Zac’s skin shifted from opalescent splendor to oppressive gloom, all while new cracks appeared endlessly across his body.

The prison brand was still trying to kill him, but it was barely able to defend itself as it was engulfed in the battle between Creation and Oblivion, let alone striking out against Zac. Still, this couldn’t go on. Zac was already dragging torrential amounts of Mental Energy, Dao, and energy from the Remnants into the two pathway highways on his shoulders, as he had two times before.

Zac sensed a wave of fear emanating from the veteran Remnants, but it was much too late. The process had started, and it wouldn’t end before a Glimpse of Chaos had been born.

70

LITTLE CHAOS

The first wisp of Chaos formed when the two streams of energy from his shoulders couldn’t resist the mounting pressure, but it wasn’t stable. At least in the sense that Chaos was stable, anyway. For better or worse, the Remnants had plenty of energy to spare. They’d already ceased fighting in his aperture, now more interested in fleeing than vanquishing their foe.

Unfortunately for them, they’d become part of something greater as their energy returned to its origin.

As bad as the Remnants had it, Zac wasn’t much better off. It almost sounded like someone was ripping dried parchments as painful cracks kept opening across his body, starting from his forehead and covering his whole torso. The more energy that was dragged into his shoulders, the more damage he had to withstand.

The painful process was pretty much running on autopilot now, with the small wisp of Chaos growing in both size and depths of its truths. Soon enough, it would be seized by the System above, and he could already feel its consciousness descend on the Orom World, filled with greed and jubilation.

He could no longer move, yet this was his window of opportunity.

As the ball of unadulterated Chaos formed in his chest, he roused a huge amount of Mental Energy and sent it over. Since the System didn’t want to bargain this time around, he would simply take what he needed. The moment his chance presented itself, Zac pounced, dragging out a small wisp of Chaos from the accumulating ball.

It put up a ferocious struggle, the small mote resisting being controlled on a fundamental level. It was Chaos, uncontrollable and unpredictable by its very nature. Having dragged the small wisp out from the growing pattern, it wouldn’t last long. Soon enough, it would slip through his fingers.

He urgently pushed it through his pathways, ignoring the damage it wrought on his body as it moved toward the prison brand on his arm. This was a test of sorts, and Zac looked on with anticipation.

The spatial barrier that protected the prison brand from the Oblivion Energy might as well not have been there as the mote of Chaos passed through without issue. Zac couldn’t comprehend the concept of its movement at all. It both formed a bridge and annihilated the space between at the same time, something that made no sense.

A moment later, the pattern on his wrist started to twist and transform. Some parts simply disappeared into nothingness, whereas others mutated in unpredictable ways. It realized it was being tampered with, but between the lack of ambient energy and [Void Zone], it was having problems rousing a proper response. Thanks to that, it simply fell apart before it could do anything.

Zac breathed out in relief, previously afraid the brand would explode just before getting destroyed. He’d been prepared to lose his arm if need be and regrow it later, but he wouldn’t have to worry about that after all. As the mark faded, Zac also felt his body erupt with power, his aura rising to an unprecedented degree.

Gone were the chains sealing his strength and sapping him of momentum. He was unburdened, unhindered, and free. But a golden bolt of lightning slammed into the ground, reminding him that his task was only partly done. Zac took a steadying breath before controlling the wisp of Chaos in his arm, once more channeling it through his body.

Between his limiters being removed and the little mote shielding him from the pressure above, he could somewhat move again, just like back in the City of Ancients. However, every second he stayed in this state was more damage wrought on his body, not to mention the growing ball of Chaos he could only delay for so long.

Thankfully, his escape was both planned and prepared, so Zac infused some energy into a ring on his hand, taking out an odd contraption from within. It was a tightly bound ball of crystals, held together by rope and talismans. It shone with four different colors: aquamarine and gold from Divine Crystals and Miasma Crystals, along with pale purple and mottled black from Temporal and Spatial Crystals.

A bomb that would render even the mad Ishiate Tinkerers weak in the knees.

Dozens of attuned Cosmic Crystals rigged to blow was enough to fill a Hegemon with trepidation, but there was no way it would be able to actually harm the Orom. That wasn’t Zac’s goal anyway, though he still wasn’t sure his idea would work.

He was running out of time. The Remnants in his mind were almost completely drained, and the anomaly in his chest had begun stabilizing. The urgency in the sky had grown even stronger, and lightning was incinerating lotus leaves by the thousands. If he didn’t take the Glimpse of Chaos out soon, Zac was afraid the System would simply blast his chest open and take it.

Before that, he needed to use it to enable his escape.

He’d considered various ways to use the uncontrollable energy of Chaos to leave the Orom World, and had essentially come up with two solutions. The first was to stall the formation of the glimpse as long as possible while finishing one of the teleportation arrays. With the Glimpse of Chaos, he would then distort the spatial laws around him and teleport away, perhaps even infusing the array itself with the power of Chaos.

If it worked, he would be gone, and Zac doubted the Orom would dare follow after the System had made an appearance.

The second idea was to cause a weakness in the fabric of space, blasting open a tear to another dimension with the power of Chaos. After having escaped, he would then quickly teleport away before the Orom caught up.

The moment he saw the fiery sky, he’d chosen to go with the second option. Teleporting from within the Orom was risky, but he figured the System’s presence in the Orom World would keep the space fish in check. However, something was clearly going on outside the Orom, and Zac didn’t dare enter a teleportation array in these kinds of conditions.

It would be a truly ignoble death, being ripped to shreds the moment he activated the teleporter because space all around the Orom had become too unstable to support teleportation. Instead, Zac would make his way to a neighboring dimension before using the array, reducing the risk that the spatial turbulence of two Autarchs fighting would take him out.

Zac tried to stem the drain of energy from the Remnants as best as he could while he activated the talisman array on the crystal bomb. At the same time, he forcibly snatched a second wisp of Chaos from the growing ball in his chest while infusing the bomb with the old one he was fast losing control of.

Turbulent waves of energy started to radiate from the shimmering ball of crystals. Zac ran for his life, using the Chaos-influenced [Earthstrider] to phase hundreds of meters away. Even then, he was flung into the air while it felt like reality itself broke. Life and Death clashed with Time and Space while the wisp of Chaos fanned the flames, forming a singularity of incomprehensible might.

What little remained of the poor island was ripped to shreds from the tumultuous waves of raw energies, and the very laws of physics were disintegrating. Zac slammed into the waters just before a blade of temporal turbulence whipped past his previous position, and he almost lost control of the budding Glimpse of Chaos in his body.

Another bolt of lightning confirmed Zac had very little time remaining, so he roused himself and breached the surface of the waters before returning to the spot the island once stood. There was no spatial tear at the heart of the explosion—more of a wound in space itself that radiated unpredictable waves of power.

Right now, it was just turbulence rather than a gate to another dimension, though that’d been Zac’s aim from the start. He arduously pushed against the Heavenly pressure to reach the epicenter of the blast, the single wisp of Chaos finding it harder and harder to withstand the mounting pressure from above. By this point, the System’s desire had almost turned into a corporeal form, its patience having reached a limit.

At that very moment, a second pressure swept over the area. Zac stilled his aura before igniting the mote of Chaos, forming a small shimmering sphere around himself. He didn’t know why he knew how to do something like that. It was like he inherently understood a lot of things with Chaos when in touch with it. Yet the moment the glimpse left, his comprehension would quickly fade.

It was just in time. The presence was too powerful, and he didn’t have any other means to hide than relying on Chaos. That little bangle on his arm would definitely fail in hiding him from the gaze of an Autarch. Thankfully, the scan passed him by after stopping a moment on the spatial wound, seemingly not having found what it sought.

The energy left in the Remnants was all but a trickle by this point, while his mind was drained and his body was covered in lacerations. However, Zac had formed his third Glimpse of Chaos, this one surpassing the previous two in intensity. Zac pushed the turbulent Chaos out from his chest, though he kept two final wisps behind by force. That scan scared him straight, and he needed them to move in either case.

The benefits of his empowered soul were quickly showing themselves. Last time, Zac had been forced to bargain with the System for just two wisps, yet this time he was able to rip four from the glimpse before he reached his limits. Who knew, the next time he might be able to seize eight and further temper both his soul and body.

With two wisps of Chaos using his body as a playground, the pressure was greatly alleviated. Even then, Zac found himself faced with another threat—the endless mysteries hidden within the glimpse itself. It was right there, no more than a meter from his face, its ever-shifting form hinting at something amazing. Something that didn’t even exist in the current cultivation world.

It followed no rules, not even its own. Yet it held supreme power to both create and destroy, to subvert fate and make the impossible possible. Not only that, it contained clues to elevating both his Daos and techniques to unfathomable levels, where he would walk unopposed among everyone in his grade. With this—

A bolt of lightning cut his reverie short, and Zac’s heart threatened to jump out of his mouth as a golden pillar slammed down on his position. The bolt tried to wrest control of the blob hovering in front of him, yet Chaos resisted, unwilling to be contained. Unable to, even, based on its most fundamental nature.

Thankfully, the collision didn’t actually harm Zac, and there almost seemed to be a tacit understanding between the two supreme forces. Eventually, the System reluctantly gave up, but a second strike was already brewing above. Taking advantage of the lull, Zac enacted his plan—if you could call it that.

He stretched out his hands and willed the Glimpse of Chaos into the spatial wound.

There was no explosion as Zac expected. Instead, there was just a ripple before an enormous gray swirl appeared, stretching over fifty meters into the air. It managed to steal terrifying amounts of energy from the neighboring realms, and both the enormous femur and the golden Boddhisatva dimmed as a result.

Even torrential streams of Life and Death were dragged over from the depths of the Orom World, once more drowning the parched surroundings in ambient energy. Seeing as that energy was previously siphoned by the Orom itself, it had probably been robbed as well, and an angry earthquake indicated his guess was correct.

The swirl kept growing, but a second blast from above blinded Zac as the System repeated its attempt to swallow the glimpse. This attempt too was met with failure, and Zac inwardly celebrated having stored all his energy for years to give the Chaos Pattern an extra kick. Perhaps that would be the difference between success and failure with this mad scheme.

Not only did the golden bolt of lightning fail to absorb the Glimpse of Chaos, but some of its energy was swallowed by the growing swirl. Along with everything else it siphoned off, the chaotic anomaly had finally formed. His exit looked completely different from anything he’d seen before, not resembling a spatial tear or a teleportation array in the slightest.

It was impossible to guess its shape, as it was constantly shifting. But more importantly, the construct didn’t seem to exist in the same three dimensions as Zac did. Just shifting his gaze made the whole thing twist on itself, like he was looking at it from a completely different angle.

It was odd and resisting comprehension, but Zac inherently knew it would work. Being temporarily in tune with Chaos, he had a slight understanding of what this thing would do. It could best be described as a Chaos Gate, existing everywhere and nowhere at once. Spatial turbulence couldn’t restrict it since it didn’t actually move in the same sense as teleportation did.

Just as Zac was about to step inside, a shimmering pillar of gold slammed into the Glimpse of Chaos, threatening to rip the gate apart just as it formed. Zac’s world turned white and he rapidly blinked to regain his vision. Once more, the Heavens had been rebuffed, but Zac felt the glimpse would only resist one or two more blasts.

Before anything else, Zac threw a small bead into the shifting vortex of Chaos. He had no idea where he’d end up on the other side, so he felt it was best to accomplish Heda’s mission this way. Zac also wanted to see how a seed fared upon entering the Chaos Gate, but his eyes widened when the seed rapidly grew, forming a familiar figure.

‘Thank you, little Chaos. Your display will live on in my dreams forever. I hope we meet again,’ Heda’s voice echoed in his mind. ‘Please take care of Vivi.’

With that, Heda was gone, whisked away God-knows-where. At least Zac believed that was the case. At the same time, Zac could sense fate congregating at his location. Were people rushing over because of the massive anomaly? Was someone coming to stop him or was it that powerful presence returning, most likely the Orom itself?

With an instantaneous burst, Zac activated [Earthstrider], and the chains of [Coffinbox] picked up the teleporter from where he left it on the shores before returning in an instant. He once more stood in front of the anomaly, and he couldn’t help but feel hesitant as he looked at the growing ball of Chaos. Even if his instincts told him that the thing was decently safe and Heda seemed fine, what did he know?

Was this yet another case of the Remnants filling him with hubris?

However, what choice did he have? Stay here and be converted, cooked, or recaptured? Absolutely not. Risks would be involved with any scheme to free himself, and he stepped forward before something changed, taking his chances that his Luck and his temporary understanding of Chaos would pull him through.

Just as Zac entered the odd anomaly while pushing the Glimpse of Chaos in front of him, he felt the ballooning blob of Chaos dislodge from its position, slowly drifting toward Kaldor’s tower. Zac hesitated, then tried to impose his will, having it instead turn toward the Life-attuned side. Rather than impacting Kaldor and Pavina, the shifty monk could deal with the fallout.

He'd been within a hair’s breadth from falling to their scheme, where he almost turned to the heart-cleansing sutras to overcome the Splinter of Oblivion’s surprisingly difficult tribulation. Zac had a strong suspicion that the moment those sutras took root in his heart, he would forever have a connection to the Sangha and be unable to completely extricate himself from their control.

He pushed deeper into the Chaos Gate with his teleportation array fastened to his back, narrowly dodging a blast of golden lightning from above. He wasn’t trying to steal the ball of Chaos from the System, he simply needed it to pave the way. As long as he carried this thing, he should be untraceable for everyone except the System itself.

However, a scream of danger made him turn around in fright. The bolt of lightning he narrowly avoided hadn’t actually dissipated—it followed him into the Chaos. Zac felt the laws around him furiously resisting, but it couldn’t withstand the barrage of the System itself. It might be Chaos, but it was just a small corner of that peak Dao.

Zac prayed it would resist a bit longer, and he sacrificed one of the wisps to stabilize his surroundings. The Orom World had already disappeared in the rear window, replaced by an endless gray. The farther the Chaos Gate could take him, the better. However, it was like the gate had a consciousness of its own, and it had another idea—expel the reason for the lightning hounding it.

Something pushed him, and the gray expanse shattered as his surroundings were replaced by a golden radiance.

“What!” Zac blurted, looking around with alarm.

Out of all places in the Multiverse, why had he been sent to a place like this!

71

RIPPLES IN HIS WAKE

The air rippled, exposing the two warriors who had been standing at the shores of the small lake, just as the young man entered the twisting sphere of Chaos.

“Amitabha, Amitabha. How marvelous,” Three Virtues smiled, though there was clearly a sense of helplessness on his face as he saw the anomaly drift toward his domain.

“That’s what you get for being too greedy. Virtue through indulgence—the hubris required to attempt something like that,” Kaldor laughed. “Couldn’t help yourself seeing all that fate accumulating, could you?”

“There is no limit to the number of paths Buddha’s boundless heart can contain,” the monk answered before turning to the sphere, putting his two hands together in prayer.

A thousand-meter-tall deva appeared behind him as waves of unfettered Divinity streamed toward the anomaly. Thousands of lotus flowers bloomed in an instant, yet they were ripped apart one after another one by Chaos. However, the monk was undeterred, chanting mantra after mantra until a golden vase formed around the anomaly.

The surroundings grew lush as Dharmic prosperity radiated through the world. More importantly, the greyish sphere finally stopped, its momentum exhausted. Three Virtues nodded in satisfaction and dispelled his skill, but Kaldor could see how the flowers in the sky had waned, and the chants had lost some of their mystery.

Kaldor inwardly snorted, knowing the monk had been forced to sacrifice quite a bit of his stockpiled merit to prevent Chaos from ruining his plans. Ultimately, any bad news for the Buddhist Sangha was good news to them, even if they’d become allies by necessity inside the Orom World.

However, Kaldor was more satisfied with what the brat’s final act signified. He’d taken a stance, and it was clearly in favor of the Undead Empire.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this thing,” Kaldor muttered. “One moment it feels like I can see through it, the next it is utterly foreign. Do you know how it works?”

“All is connected,” the monk smiled. “A gate of Chaos is a doorway without limits. Alas, the details elude this poor monk as well.”

“Whatever, don’t tell me,” Kaldor snorted. “Doesn’t matter.”

“The window has not yet closed, old friend,” Three Virtues said as he looked over at the Reaver. “One step for liberation. One thought for transformation.”

“Trying to tempt me?” Kaldor said with a raised brow. “I am not done with this place. What about you? You’ve been here a lot longer than me. Even someone cultivating the heart must grow weary of this place.”

“Amitabha, all is one. As long as my heart remains pure, my path is satisfied. Alas, the fate between this poor monk and Lord Orom is approaching its conclusion,” the monk said.

“So, will you tell me now why you were so adamant about altering events?” Kaldor asked, unable to contain his curiosity. “Those on the outside are definitely here for the kid, and fate would have reached a tipping point as long as the brat stayed trapped. You had me waste five million Purchase Points to hasten his escape by a few minutes?”

“The young Almsgiver having the Remnants is important, though I cannot delve deeper when that place is involved,” Three Virtues explained.

Kaldor frowned thoughtfully. He’d already guessed the mysterious Edgewalker had some connections to that place since this scheming monk approached him, but he still couldn’t figure out how. And why involve him and the Undead Empire? Was the Sangha that confident?

“Even if you wanted him to have the Remnants, you could have just bought them yourself and gifted them instead of arranging this scheme of yours. In the end, your plans only seemed to have driven a promising Edgewalker toward the Undead Empire while driving a wedge between him and the Buddhist Sangha,” Kaldor said with a shake of his head.

“Children will often not realize the purpose of the teachings of their elders. Yet one day, it will crystallize into something that will bear fruit and positive Karma.” The monk smiled.

“I guess we’ll see,” Kaldor said. “You’re playing a dangerous game involving the empire in your schemes. Grasp all, lose all.”

“Can it not be a parting gift from this poor monk?” The monk laughed as he looked up at the Reaver’s expressionless face. “Lighting a lamp—”

“I know, I know,” Kaldor groaned. “No need for your diatribes. You wanted a Karmic Debt, right? Well, I guess I’ll take the gamble the brat’s that important.”

“His fate is beyond what I can estimate. It leaves ripples in his wake. One day, those ripples will turn into a storm. Some will drown while others will be raised to the Heavens. This is as far as I can go.”

“Well, he certainly smelled like trouble. This big bastard is already suffering from his appearance,” Kaldor laughed. “Well, that’s the Abyssal Shore’s problems now. He is destined to join the empire.”

“Destiny is a tricky thing,” the monk laughed before he turned away. “This is the second to last time we meet.”

The Izh’Rak Reaver was temporarily rigid in surprise agreement. “On the outside…”

“Such is fate,” the monk nodded as he disappeared. “Good luck finding what you’re searching for.”

“Goodbye, old friend,” Kaldor sighed as his gaze turned to a spot beneath the waters.

A bone spur shot out from his finger, and a huge eruption ripped space and time apart, utterly annihilating any lingering Karmic threads or other clues of the one called Zac Piker. A second spur shot out, entering the swirling anomaly. Hopefully, the beacon would work even with a gate as weird as this.

A moment later he was gone as well, leaving just a broken world and a burning sky.

* * *

Unless the whispers of Chaos had lied to him, the ball of Chaos should have been able to take him almost anywhere. So why did he find himself in front of a face so big, he first mistook it for a burning mountain? A face whose flames were all-too-familiar. It was amplified a hundredfold out here in the emptiness of space, but there was no doubt in Zac’s mind.

The flames released by this monstrosity were the very same as the flames in the Orom World.

Zac desperately backed away after confirming he could still control the shuddering Glimpse of Chaos. Holding onto that thing was his only source of safety in this situation. This small change in distance was nothing to a supreme being like this, but it at least gave him a chance to understand what he was dealing with. A gargantuan golem floating in an endless expanse of flames.

Behind it were five sets of burning wings, each one longer than the golem itself. As they lazily beat, the Dao rippled and space shuddered. Zac’s felt his soul almost combusting upon looking at the patterns the wings drew, unable to contain even a corner of their might. More shocking, the three sets of Remnants retreated into their prison on their own accord, fleeing the terrifying pressure the golem exuded. The prison still lacked a gate, but they made no attempt to escape. They even gathered together for support, unable to withstand the flames on their own.

Zac had never encountered a being as powerful as this—neither the Orom nor the Havarok Autarch could compare. The only ones who might come close were A’Zu and Be’Zi, but Zac honestly doubted those two were a match to this golem, even if they teamed up. Was this a Peak Autarch or an actual Supremacy in the flesh? It was too far beyond him. He had no frame of reference.

The good news was that the golem didn’t seem to have any intention of killing him. At this kind of proximity, it would have to actively restrain its aura to not blast Zac into nothingness, and Zac doubted even a Glimpse of Chaos could save him from that kind of ending.

However, there was someone in the area that was even more powerful.

Zac arduously turned his head, unsurprised to see Orom thrashing in the distance. The Primordial Beast dwarfed the golem in size, yet it felt like a flea in front of its Dao. It had already lost a good chunk of its innumerable tentacles, and grotesque scorch marks covered its body. It was releasing awe-inspiring bursts of Spatial Energy, but it was futile. Sixteen pillars of ultimate fire incinerated the Orom’s attacks and attempts to form spatial tears the moment they appeared, before carrying on with scorching the beast like it was a dish to be prepared.

The Orom’s predicament was a source of no small amount of joy. Zac had been trapped for over four years in that bastard. It wasn’t much for most people in the Multiverse, but it was over a tenth of his whole life until now. And he was one of the lucky ones, where most simply got swallowed and chewed up.

But the Orom’s plight was a small comfort in the face of the predicament he found himself in. His plan would have worked pretty much no matter where he appeared from the Chaos Gate, so why did he have to end up here? Even if the System’s bolt of lightning had gotten him thrown out, shouldn’t he still have been transported more than a few hundred kilometers?

Was it the domain of flames that impacted his escape? No, if that was the case, why was Heda nowhere to be seen? Zac wondered if the golem actually targeted him, perhaps here for the Chaos as well. There was no time for him to get to the bottom of things as the roiling clouds of thunder had caught up, appearing out of nowhere right above him.

“Take it, you asshole!” Zac roared as he pushed the Glimpse of Chaos away from him. “But remember, if I don’t get out of here, no more glimpses for you!”

A clap of thunder was all the response he got. A pillar of lightning slammed into the pattern, draining the universe of all color. The final sliver of Chaos left in his body wasn’t enough to resist the Heavenly pressure, and Zac found himself locked in place as he gazed upon the Terminus.

With the System restraining the chaotic pattern, Zac finally got a true glimpse of the truths within, yet he didn’t know whether it was a blessing or a curse being shown this thing. His soul was so much more powerful compared to before, but he still felt utterly insignificant compared to what hid inside the Glimpse of Chaos.

His mind was overwhelmed by a torrent of insights, and trying to turn the flood of concepts into an epiphany was a fool’s errand. As long as he didn’t go insane or break his soul, he’d come out ahead. Zac could only hold onto his sanity until the System finally dragged that cursed thing out of this place.

Even the fantastical golem was unable, or at least unwilling, to contend with the System’s pressure, and it looked like the world was frozen for what felt like an eternity until the bolt of lightning dispersed. A moment later, the System left, though Zac felt a new rune appear in the prison of his mind, once more sealing the drained Remnants inside.

Zac released a pent-up sigh of relief, but the sigh turned into a pained grunt as the slightest movement filled him with agony. The glimpse was gone and the Remnants were dealt with, but the havoc they caused in those few short minutes left him in almost as bad a state as after his fight with Uona.

The only difference this time was that his soul was in a better state, and he didn’t have any wounds on his body except for those left by Creation, Oblivion, and Chaos. Unfortunately, it was those wounds that were the hardest to deal with, though Zac had prepared for this day. In his ring was a slightly inferior, but portable, version of the type of healing array he used in the Orom World—his largest purchase when he made his preparations before making his first attempt at escape with an Annihilation Sphere.

Of course, that thing wouldn’t help him with his current situation, something Zac was immediately reminded of as he felt a new presence lock onto him the moment the System was gone. It was the golem.

“Uh, don’t mind me, senior. I’ll just get out of your way,” Zac said as he started pushing himself through space with Cosmic Energy, away from that terrifying golem and the Orom itself. After some hesitation, he added, “There are people inside that fish’s body, prisoners. I hope senior can be gracious and spare them.”

The golem didn’t seem to have come to kill indiscriminately. Otherwise, he would already be dead, no matter if you considered the flames in the Orom World or the fires that surrounded the Orom without harming a hair on his body. That small reminder might save those within, though that was as far as Zac could go.

He flew away as quickly as he could while maintaining control of the final wisp of Chaos. What he could use it for, Zac had no idea, but it was better than being unarmed. He would only be able to hold onto it for a minute or so, but that should be long enough for him to move some distance away.

Perhaps far enough to leave the golem’s fiery domain unless it extended its breadth.

“Mr. Bug, do you think it’s so easy to leave after I’ve come all this way?” a crystalline voice echoed through the void, dashing Zac’s hopes in an instant.

The massive burning mountain was a woman? No, there was no way the hulking golem was the source of the voice. More importantly, he recognized it, though he couldn’t quite remember from where. Then it came to him, and the hair on his body stood on end. It couldn’t be, right? What were the odds?

Then in a burst of flames, she was there—Iz Tayn.

Zac looked with horror at the incoming figure. Just like him, she was a small speck in front of the apocalyptic golem. Yet he remembered that orange-golden hair that danced behind her as she approached, those sapphire eyes whose pupils were slightly vertical—full of indifference like she was a goddess looking down at the mortal realm.

Apart from the three odd lines drawing graceful arcs across her cheeks and down her forehead, she looked completely human—and was no doubt the most beautiful woman Zac had seen in his life. It wasn’t only the pristine features, it was like her very being was in tune with the Dao itself, with every feature containing the truths of the Heavens.

However, her mesmerizing appearance wasn’t enough to calm the burgeoning panic over the situation. He remembered those terrifying flames of hers, of how he had been utterly humbled the last time they met. The worst thing was, he could feel that nothing had really changed, even after all he’d been through.

Zac’s mind screamed of danger. He couldn’t be certain, but judging by the regal Dao that exuded from her, she most likely had multiple Middle-stage Dao Branches. Perhaps even Late-stage. Zac had no confidence at all dealing with this kind of peak genius, especially not in his wretched state.

And even if Zac wanted to, did he dare actually attack her? She was clearly connected with the monstrous golem, their Daos almost perfectly aligned. They shouldn’t be family, but perhaps they came from the same sect. Perhaps the golem was even her master. He had a strong suspicion he would be reduced to ash the moment he even thought of using his last wisp of Chaos to deal with this girl.

Zac’s exhausted mind railed at the unfairness of the situation. He’d planned for years and risked everything to escape through the Chaos Gate. So why the hell had this crazy woman appeared here! Was it bad luck? Worse, had she actually hunted him down, instructing the golem to ruin his escape somehow?

He was too dog-tired, and this wasn’t a variable he was prepared for. He was drawing a blank on what he should do.

“Crazy stalker,” Zac muttered as he tried to rouse himself for a fight, but he immediately regretted airing the subconscious sentiment.

“What was that!” Iz exclaimed as three sets of wings burst out from behind her back.

They were nowhere near as grand as the ones the golem used to cover half the sky, and neither did they contain even a fraction of their concepts. Still, they held some sort of purity Zac could only remember seeing once before. The white light he’d tried ingesting back in the Twilight Chasm.

Seeing the wings of untainted flames, and remembering her shocking display while still at F-grade, Zac wondered just what kind of heritage this woman had. Seeing how her master or Dao Guardian was such a terrifying being, Zac knew he shouldn’t be too surprised by anything she displayed.

His mother should be the equivalent of an Autarch, and she had thrown more wealth in his direction than Earth would be able to generate on its own in centuries. And that was just to sever Karma with him.

What if a faction with actual Supremacies wholeheartedly wanted to nurture someone? Zac didn’t even dare imagine what kind of treasures this annoying woman had come in contact with. Yet one more reason he regretted blurting those words, but his mind was simply too exhausted by the glimpse and overwhelmed by the situation to filter himself.

There was only one entity he could turn to for help right now.

“You better help me!” Zac roared at the sky, which prompted Iz Tayn to stop, confused. “You left like a bandit, you bastard! What about your Law of Balance? You got the glimpse, I got screwed over! Is that balance?”

“What are you—” Iz is exclaimed. “I’ve come here to show—”

Zac just waved at the girl to stay quiet, forgoing courtesy out of necessity. His soul was utterly drained, yet it was suddenly crammed full by a burst of information. It was the fifth layer of the [Nine Reincarnations Manual], and that one tome contained as much information as the previous four combined.

That wasn’t the only gift, as Zac felt his wrist heat up. His mind was in chaos, but he still spotted the golden runes dancing around his escape bangle, and he knew what he had to do. He moved the final wisp of Chaos and pushed it into his bracelet.

Space and Chaos converged in an instant, and the terrifying surroundings were replaced with darkness as he was whisked away by teleportation. A few minutes passed without change, and only then did Zac dare relax. By now he should have moved millions of miles already. The System’s idea worked.

He was going home.

EPILOGUE

FURNACES AND TROUBLEMAKERS

Iz looked at the spot where Mr. Bug once stood, her heart filled with unwillingness as space smoothed out following the burst of chaotic turbulence. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. How did he escape? Was she set up? Her eyes thinned as she turned to her surprised-looking uncle who appeared next to her.

“Lord Valderak, I thought you locked space?” Iz asked with a calm voice.

“Ai, child, why do you use such distant language?” Valderak sighed. “I swear, this was not something I arranged.”

“Then what happened?” Iz frowned. “How could he simply disappear?”

“That little madman hid some Chaos in his body, and he infused it into a rudimentary escape bangle on his arm. I can lock down space, but I know too little about the Dao of Chaos. I feared that if I blocked his escape, he’d be rendered into a mist of blood as he was ripped out from whatever concepts dragged him away,” Valderak explained.

“More importantly, he carried the mark of the Boundless Heavens. It mostly stabilized the spatial tunnel for him. Who knows what the result would be if I tried to meddle,” the golem continued. “You know the situation of most of your grandpa’s disciples. A shift in the Heavens can be lethal while they are accomplishing their tasks.”

“And you are not just saying this to placate me?” Iz said, not completely convinced her uncle hadn’t simply looked the other way, happy to be done with this matter.

“When have I ever lied to you?” Valderak said with an innocent expression.

“All the time,” Iz muttered.

“Well,” Valderak coughed. “Not this time.”

“Alright, where is he now?”

“One second.” Valderak closed his eyes, only to quickly open them again with a shake of his head. “Chaos is truly a mysterious path. I can sense him, but in multiple directions. All are true, yet none of them are. We will have to wait a bit to know for sure.”

“We missed him then…” Iz frowned. “By the way, what’s a stalker?”

“It’s… Someone good at tracking down people. Like how you managed to track him across the Multiverse in a few short years. He was most likely impressed, albeit begrudgingly?” the golem offered after some hesitation.

“A backhanded compliment,” Iz nodded. “Well, I’ll still beat him up for good measure when I catch up.”

“As you should,” Valderak nodded before he stopped with a frown. “Wait, catch up? You’re not thinking of—”

“I’m not going back. Definitely not,” Iz said resolutely. “Not before I’ve accomplished my goal.”

“Ai, all this for that troublesome brat?” Valderak sighed. “I cannot stay in these lower realms much longer. I have already tempted the Heavens by dealing with this fish. Someone might take notice if I linger and use it against your grandfather.”

“A failure might affect my Dao Heart. If you’re okay with me having such a failure hanging over my head while forming a core, then we can go home,” Iz calmly said, eliciting a groan from the golem.

“When did you become such a naughty girl? Is it because you’ve watched that brat?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Iz smiled, but a scowl returned to her face when she looked at the still-burning Voidcatcher. “All because this troublemaker of a fish refused to spit out Mr. Bug. He said there was no such person in his world, that he’d scanned to make sure. What a liar!”

“The guts of a lion,” Valderak nodded. “I’ll burn him a bit more.”

The heat of the surrounding area rose, and the dimension itself started fraying as Valderak no longer had to worry about incinerating a certain E-grade cultivator.

“Please wait, young miss, esteemed master!” a new voice shouted as a humanoid cultivator appeared in front of the gargantuan Voidcatcher, surrounded by gigantic feathers crackling with lightning that were able to block out the flames.

White arcs of lightning continuously flashed around her, and her eyes shone with white radiance, matching the long feathers she had instead of hair. The next moment, an old man appeared next to her, his body covered in scorch marks. Obviously, the latter was the avatar of the Voidcatcher himself, the old man who lied to them just a minute ago.

Iz looked with surprise, while her uncle snorted and waved his hand, dragging the two cultivators to their side.

“Finally willing to show your face?” Valderak grunted before he looked at the young girl with some surprise. “A Thunder Roc? What’s a little brat like you doing inside a Voidcatcher?”

“I humbly apologize if my Dao Guardian did something to upset Lord and the young miss,” the feathered woman said with a deep bow. “Our elders will make reparations if we have overstepped any bounds by mistake.”

“Your elders?” Valderak asked, though understanding gradually formed in his eyes.

Iz wasn’t quite following, but she understood the gist of it when the Roc spoke again.

“Lord Orom was assigned to accompany me by the Starbeast Alliance.”

Valderak didn’t react at all to the mention of that powerful organization, though Iz’s brows slightly furrowed. She wasn’t too versed in politics, with her uncle always telling her it was unimportant. He always said to do what you wanted and if someone disagreed, just test their fate. But even she knew the situation had become a bit thorny.

Grilling the fish would bring some trouble to her grandma, and she had enough on her plate with the System trying to hunt her down.

Besides, the Starbeast Alliance was pretty powerful, even if they only had a couple thousand official members. After all, the minimum requirement to join was to be a Primordial Beast. Not only that, they only took in the big guys whose bodies were so massive, they couldn’t reside on planets, perennially drifting among the stars. This so-called Lord Orom was probably one of their smallest members.

This Roc was just a child, but by the time she reached adulthood in a few millennia, her wingspan would be enough to cover a planet upon taking her beast form. Iz looked at the young girl curiously and found she was fearfully looking back at her before averting her gaze. As far as Iz could remember, this was the first Roc she’d ever met, though there were some other beast cultivators at her last gathering.

Seeing the two here was also a bit confusing. Iz wasn’t an expert on Starbeasts, but they really shouldn’t be this close to the frontier. They needed so much energy just to sustain their oversized bodies, these desolate regions were almost lethal. It might be somewhat able to sustain itself by swallowing enough treasures and cultivators, but it would still be better off staying in one of the regions controlled by the alliance.

“You must be a promising one to reach Atavism at early D-grade, though I still wonder why they assigned a Primordial Beast to guard you,” Valderak said before his eyes thinned. “More importantly, the Starbeast Alliance have really become overbearing as of late, with your guardian swallowing humanoids left and right. Its fell Karma is almost blinding me.”

“Only second-tier warriors and below,” the young woman hurriedly said. “The alliance remembers the agreement, and we make sure to stay within the limits. Sometimes a mistake might occur, but we always offer reparations when that happens.”

“Then what are you doing in this region? You should know the rules of non-interference,” Valderak said.

“It’s my fault,” the young Roc said. “I said I wanted to visit the wild regions, dragging Lord Orom with me.”

“Uncle, let’s go,” Iz said, no longer interested in staying since she couldn’t grill the fish and Mr. Bug was already gone.

“One second,” the golem said with a smile before he turned to the old man. “Give us the [Stone of Celestial Void].”

Iz looked at her uncle with confusion, and the two beasts were startled as well. Even then, space flickered and a small stone appeared in the hand of the old man.

“Is this the thing Lord is talking about?” Orom said hesitantly. “It should only be a D-grade material, if Lord wants, I have many—”

“This is what I want,” Valderak interrupted as the stone flew into his hand. “Child, let’s go.”

Iz nodded, and the next moment they disappeared in a puff of flames, leaving the beasts to their own devices.

“Ai,” the old man sighed as he turned around, looking at the state of his body.

“Mister, how bad is it?” Til’Siri asked.

“I am ashamed. I could not resist that master at all,” Orom said, fear still lingering in his eyes. “But I should be fine in ten thousand years or so.”

“Audacious,” the Roc said with a frown. “Such an attack, for what? An E-grade cultivator?”

“That golem… It should be the sixth disciple of Mohzius Tayn,” the old man said.

“The Tayns?” Til’Siri exclaimed with fright. “We’re lucky to be alive, then.”

“I’m sorry for implicating the young miss,” the old man sighed. “It’s all because of my oversight swallowing that troublesome brat.”

“You were just following orders, mister,” Til’Siri said with a shake of her head. “The providence on that batch was unprecedented, and I think he must have been a big part of it. Did we get what we needed before he escaped?”

“That’s…” Orom said hesitantly as he frowned at his body.

“What’s wrong?” the Roc asked.

“The monks have banded together to spread their gospel, and the undead are digging toward the corpses. If I allow it to continue, the result will not be as good. The array still needs to charge for another few years. I am afraid I cannot completely restrain them in my current state.”

“A throne, the Sangha, and the Undead Empire. All at the same time. It cannot be a coincidence,” Til’Siri muttered, her brows furrowed in thought before her eyes lit up and she turned to the Voidcatcher. “Do you think…?”

The old man clearly understood what she was referring to, and a smile spread across his face. “It is fractured, but it really looks like it might be in this region.”

“Millions of years of searching, it’s finally coming to an end. The alliance will reward you richly for your contribution,” Til’Siri said, her eyes veritably radiating. “Just let those people on the inside take what they want. Just put up enough of a struggle to make it believable. We’re going back.”

“Your father doesn’t want us to confirm?” Orom asked.

“Normally, yes,” Til’Siri hesitated. “But now… I have a bad feeling after meeting those two.”

“Too many coincidences at the same time,” the old man agreed.

“Hopefully, the Tayns just came for that boy,” Til’Siri muttered. “And perhaps those inside are only after the bodies. But we shouldn’t push it. Let’s return. The Starbeast Alliance has a head start thanks to the prophecy, but the other factions will find out sooner or later. We need to maintain the lead as long as possible if we want the best chance of seizing that thing.”

“Ultom Courts, Left Imperial Palace,” Orom whispered with longing in his eyes before they disappeared.

Orom opened up a rift in space, eager to leave this wretched area behind. He’d deal with those buggers inside his body as soon as he managed to hide in a spatial fold. However, just as he was about to pass through, Orom found himself slowed to a crawl. His movements, his Dao, his thoughts. They were all decelerated, as though swimming against the current of the river of time itself.

“It took us some time tracking you down,” a snort echoed through the Void as a woman appeared out of nowhere. “Looks like you’ve run into some trouble.”

She was as small as a speck of dust, but Orom shuddered as he saw space freeze for thousands of miles in every direction. Even those terrifying flames that threatened to consume him moments ago were stopped in place as temporal ripples spread in every direction, dragging a moment in time toward eternity.

Had someone been attracted by the commotion, making their move now that he was weakened? He refused to give in, knowing he was right at the finish line. He’d signed up for an eternal task with the Starbeast Alliance, all for the chance to remove the imperfection in his bloodline. Finally, he’d accomplished it, having found the clues to the Left Imperial Palace.

He pushed his harried body to the limits, but every dimension he connected to was an eternity away, locked by millions of years of death. If he dared pass through those barriers, his remaining lifespan would be used up before even getting close.

‘See what they want!’ Til’Siri said from the safety of her courtyard, and he inwardly swore at this brat.

He hated showing obeisance to this little bird, just because her father was a bigshot. Worse yet, he was afraid she’d try to take credit, even if she’d only been here a few years. She hadn’t done a thing so far, and only spent her time using up his resources and studying the [Emptiness Array] to understand his method of searching. It was he who spent most of his life scouring the edges of the Multiverse for clues.

Still, he could only follow the little Roc’s orders. At least this new arrival didn’t directly attack upon arriving.

Orom conjured an avatar again, appearing some distance away from the humanoid woman reeking of antiquity and death. He shuddered when he saw those two abyssal orbs for eyes, and was filled with trepidation upon remembering he’d consumed some half-bloods recently.

A second tremor shook him to the core upon remembering the description he’d heard just a moment ago. The brat who managed to escape. ‘An E-grade human with an axe. He sometimes looks like a Draugr.’

It couldn’t possibly be… Right?

“I have come to collect one of your furnaces,” the woman said without preamble. “He is a pureblood Draugr wielding an axe and chains, but he might sometimes look like a human.”

Oh no…

* * *

“Why did you want that thing?” Iz asked curiously as she looked at the small stone in her uncle’s palm.

They’d found a nearby sun to reside on while waiting for Mr. Bug to pop out, the scorching heat helping her uncle alleviate some of the pressure.

“Girl, don’t you remember?” Valderak smiled as he threw the small ball over to Iz. “Your little friend wanted to buy this thing, but he was coming up short.”

“He’s not my friend,” Iz muttered, but she still grabbed the treasure.

“Then, don’t you want to become friends?” the golem asked. “Isn’t that what you’re missing? Friends to go on adventures with, to deal with the boredom brought by eons of cultivation.”

Iz thoughtfully looked at the stone, sensing the odd energies within. She didn’t know why, but it reminded her a bit of that guy. Was it bloodline related? She played with it a bit as she considered what her uncle said. Perhaps this was why she’d come all this way.

She’d always stayed on her private planet since young, where only the most trusted attendants could reside. People who served for generations without ever coming in contact with outside factions to minimize the risk of betrayal. The only exception was her uncle, and the other disciples she had yet to meet.

While the attendants on the planet were friendly, Iz knew enough to tell they weren’t friends. There was an unbreachable distance between them, one ingrained into their very cores. Besides, they lacked talent, meaning they weren’t fated. Even if she managed to get closer to one, they would eventually drift apart.

Her uncle had said that one’s perspective of time and people would change as you rose through the ranks. Those who couldn’t keep up weren’t fated, bound to an ignoble existence. As for those young masters she’d met on her few outings, they weren’t friends either. A few might have the potential to keep up with her cultivation pace, but they were just sent by their elders in an attempt to build relations with her grandparents.

Was this why she was so interested in Mr. Bug? A weird aberrance at the edge of the universe containing a bloodline that put pressure on her own. Someone who didn’t even know about the situation in the upper realms or who she or her grandparents were, yet held the potential to reach the true realms of cultivation and ascend beyond being an unfated transient existence.

“Are you good at making friends?” Iz said with surprise. “I have never seen you with any.”

“Bah, that’s just because I’ve been guarding you for the past few decades,” Valderak snorted. “I have a lot of friends.”

“Are you referring to the other uncles and aunts?” Iz asked suspiciously, wondering if being disciple-brothers and sisters were really the same thing as friends.

“Anyway. You catch more flies with honey,” Valderak said after a few seconds of drawn-out silence. “You should beat him up to prove you are stronger than him. That brings respect, and it will encourage him to keep getting stronger. Then you can give this thing as a present. That will show you are generous and kind of heart.”

“Uncle actually knows about these matters as well,” Iz nodded.

“I’ve been around for six million years, what don’t I know?” Valderak boisterously laughed. “Just listen to your uncle and you can’t go wrong. You can also take out the stone if he’s about to escape again. The brat seems pretty greedy, and seeing this thing should stop him in his tracks long enough for you to catch him.”

“Alright, I’ll listen to uncle,” Iz smiled. “Can you sense anything yet?”

“Not yet,” Valderak said with a shake of his head. “It might be a while depending on how far he teleported.”

Iz nodded, and simply closed her eyes in cultivation.

“Oh, there we go,” Valderak said after two weeks had passed. “He’s out.”

“Let’s go!” Iz said with glee.

“There’s a problem,” the golem frowned. “He’s in a sector at the utmost border, and the Heavens have restricted it for some reason. My perception got extinguished in an instant.”

“Then what do we do?” Iz frowned.

“Let me talk with your grandfather,” Valderak said after some hesitation and closed his eyes.

Two minutes later they opened, just as a second golem appeared next to them, this one a Peak Monarch.

“Ancestor,” the golem said with a bow.

“Accompany my ward to a frontier sector to gain experience,” Valderak said. “She comes to harm, and fate for you and your line ends. Accomplish the mission, and I will personally assist you in confirming your Dao.”

“I understand,” the golem said with a bow. “I will accomplish the task without fail.”

“Grandpa is letting me go?” Iz said, actually a bit surprised. After hearing her uncle couldn’t go, she would have thought her grandfather wanted her to return.

“Go, have fun,” Valderak smiled. “Make friends, fight some people, go on adventures. I’ll teleport you as close as I can, but it will take you a while longer to reach the sector.”

“Uncle is the best!” Iz said, her smile widening even further. A few moments later the two were gone, leaving Valderak behind.

“I guess I should check out what has all these factions in a tizzy,” Valderak muttered. "It looks like a storm is about to descend on the frontier."

THANK YOU FOR READING DEFIANCE OF THE FALL BOOK NINE

We hope you enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. We just wanted to take a moment to encourage you to review the book. Follow this link: Defiance of the Fall 9 to be directed to the book’s Amazon product page to leave your review.

Every review helps further the author’s reach and, ultimately, helps them continue writing fantastic books for us all to enjoy.

* * *

DEFIANCE OF THE FALL

BOOK ONE

BOOK TWO

BOOK THREE

BOOK FOUR

BOOK FIVE

BOOK SIX

BOOK SEVEN

BOOK EIGHT

BOOK NINE

BOOK TEN

* * *

Want to discuss our books with other readers and even the authors like J.F. Brink (TheFirstDefier), Shirtaloon, Zogarth, Cale Plamann, Noret Flood (Puddles4263) and so many more?

Join our Discord server today and be a part of the Aethon community.

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Website

You can also join our non-spam mailing list by visiting www.subscribepage.com/AethonReadersGroup and never miss out on future releases. You'll also receive three full books completely Free as our thanks to you.

* * *

Looking for more great books?

* * *

Alphonso Richt— Expert botanist. Genius chemist. Recently unemployed. Burning down the lab will do that. But every cloud has a silver lining, and after being let go from his most recent job for unsanctioned experiments, Alph is given the chance to blow off a little steam with a cutting edge new game that isn’t even out of beta.
It's called Nova Terra.
Logging into a fully developed fantasy world, Alph discovers a new field of study called Alchemy that instantly captivates him, allowing him to bring his unique insights and scientific knowledge to bear as he explores the wonders of magic. Plus, no one really cares if his potions explode in the game. Mad Master Alchemist is a new LitRPG story from Seth Ring, bestselling author of Battle Mage Farmer and The Titan Series. Set in the world of Nova Terra and starring the unforgettable Alph, if you like immersive storytelling, rich fantasy, and epic adventures with a slice of friendship thrown in, you’ll love this novel.
Pick up Mad Master Alchemist today and uncover the mystery of Nova Terra!

Get Mad Master Alchemist Now!

* * *

He WILL protect this town. Glenn Redwood has longed to become an Adventurer since he was a young boy, and has focused every waking moment since he turned 14 on leveling and growing stronger.
Answering the challenge of the Gods of Luxtera, he has fought Monsters to prove himself again and again. He has earned the right to travel the world and protect its people... but the Gods have other plans.
After they choose Glenn to become a Town Guard, he is charged with protecting his small town and everyone within. His dreams of traveling the world seem all but impossible. Even so, as he upgrades his new Town Guard Class, Glenn learns that one doesn't need to travel abroad to find challenge, adventure, friendship, and even love.
And the people he wants most strongly to protect may have been in his small village all along. Don't miss the start of a new action-packed LitRPG Adventure with strong-to-stronger progression, strategic battles, endearing characters, and slice-of-life elements.

Get Town Guard Now!

* * *

Trapped in a Dungeon. There's only one way out. Kill or be killed... An AI calling itself Schema has assimilated earth into its System. As a consequence, everyone gained access to status screens, power-ups, and skills. This AI turned these concepts from fiction to fact. It's easy to become intoxicated with leveling up and becoming stronger. To some, it's too good to be true like living out a dream.
For Daniel, however, it's closer to a nightmare.
He's in a bit of a predicament. Cracks in our dimensional fabric have unleashed terrifying beasts from dark, abyssal places. Schema organizes these cracks into dungeons, giving the native species of the planet a chance to fight back.
Daniel finds himself stuck in one of these dungeons. It's time to break free, by any means necessary.

Get The New World Now!

* * *

Kullen is the Emperor’s assassin. The sharp hand of justice. The Black Talon. Gifted a soul-forged bond with his dragon, Umbris, Kullen is tasked with hunting any and all who oppose the Empire.
But when the secretive Crimson Fang murders two noblemen before his very eyes, Kullen must discover the truth of who they are and what they want. What he uncovers is a web of lies and deceit spiraling into the depths of Dimvein.
Natisse, a high-ranking member of the rebellion known as the Crimson Fang, has no greater goal than to rid Dimvein of power-hungry nobles. Haunted by her past, fire, flames, and the death of her parents, she sets out to destroy the dragons and those who wield them as unstoppable weapons of destruction.
Until she, too, finds herself buried beneath the weight of the revelations her investigations reveal...
The Empire is under siege from within, and one man, dressed in black like the night, stands at the epicenter of it all.

Get Black Talon Now!

* * *

For all our LitRPG books, visit our website.