It took Cade less than a couple of hours to find the lake, and a big smile immediately stretched his lips.

  This elation, however, didn’t last long. He opened his eyes, and his brow creased.

  This could be a bit of a problem.

  By returning to the vision, he quickly realized the huge courtyard with the large transportation formation in its center was not on the map. Worse, it lay in a direction nearly opposite to the Beast Battlefield, which in itself was enormous, stretching over several thousand miles.

  Based on the vision, he estimated the courtyard to be roughly seventeen thousand miles from the entrance gate to the Divine Realm—some two thousand miles past the map’s border. In a normal environment, this wouldn’t be an issue, but flying inside the Realm was exceptionally dangerous.

  Additionally, repulsion ore barely worked there, making speeders useless. Even if they functioned normally, using a flier would still be out of the question.

  Not only were there areas of unstable space within the Realm, but the main danger—bubbles of frozen time—were only visible from certain angles. This meant someone flying fast could unknowingly enter such a bubble, ending up trapped within the Realm for nine years at minimum.

  What complicated things further was the unpredictability of those bubbles. They could occur anywhere, anytime, though they were a lot more common high up in the air than close to the ground. Every time the Realm went through its nine-year cycle, the locations of many time bubbles changed, seemingly at random.

  If I want to reach the chapel and return in time to search the Beast Battlefield, I have to fly fast.

  Cade released a slow breath. He reasoned that it should be doable if his sixth sense worked to warn him of the bubbles ahead, but he had to test it first once inside the Realm.

  If not… well, then he would just have to be very careful and hope luck was on his side.

  Since he had discovered a path to the chapel, he decided to make it his priority. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that the real treasure of the Life and Death Divine Realm was awaiting him in the depths of that underground hall.

  Cade shut down the map and sat pondering for a few minutes. There were many fascinating landmarks within the Realm, yet most weren’t very useful to a life cultivator like himself.

  The Magitower was one such example. A seemingly ordinary tower with several levels — but inside, both qi cultivators and body refiners could earn amazing cultivation arts and techniques. It was a lot less risky than trying to find unlooted corpses, and the rewards could be much better, since the Magitower was an important treasure of the Thousand Life Pavillion Sect.

  The tower provided a set of challenges, each one more difficult than the last. Each trial yielded rewards based on how well the cultivator performed. It was a miracle in itself that the Magitower still worked after uncountable millennia had passed.

  Another important landmark was the Spirit Pool — a small lake where the water was imbued with great amounts of spiritual qi. It was the primary cultivation spot of the realm. Back when the sect was still operational, only certain individuals would receive access to the pool, and it required a large amount of merit points.

  One day spent inside was equal to a few months of bitter cultivation in a place like the Sword Dao Mountain. It could be considered a heaven-defying treasure, though typically, a few days after the opening of the Realm, the pool ended up running dry due to a huge influx of energy-starved cultivators.

  Then, over the period of the next few years, it would gradually recover its potency, just in time for the next wave. Time fluctuations didn’t seem to affect it nearly as much, probably because the source of its energy was deep in the ground.

  The vast majority of disciples entering the Divine Realm took a similar path — first they’d head out to the Spirit Pool, and once it was depleted, they’d fly over to the Magitower.

  Yet neither of those locations was of particular interest to Cade, which actually made everything easier. He could meet with Brickwall and King after they were finished with the Spirit Pool.

  He had no doubt that with its help, Reeve would reach the late stage of Skeletal Reinforcement, and there was a good chance King would advance to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. Both men couldn’t afford to pass on this excellent opportunity.

  Happy with these arrangements, Cade decided to fly out to Oasis, where he first headed to the beast market.

  He needed a Rank 3 carcass as the amount of blood essence he had left wasn’t enough for the journey into the Divine Realm. He had to be prepared to use a lot of blood, and it wasn’t guaranteed he’d find any within the Realm. Hunting a Rank 3 beast himself could take a few days, and right now, he didn’t want to waste any more time than necessary. Those precious hours were better spent on training with automatons.

  With a bleeding heart, Cade splurged 110,000 spirit crystals on a massive corpse of a late-stage desert stomper. The spirit beast was one of the least dangerous creatures within the Desert of a Thousand Lakes. The demand for its blood was average at best, but it contained a huge volume of it, which was exactly what he needed.

  Cade paid a brief visit to Naia and her mother at their new house, dropping off the Tyrant’s belt he had forgotten was still on the old man’s corpse.

  Naia seemed very happy to see him and was overall in very high spirits. She had already started cultivating the first stage of the Mirror Phalanx and was excited to share her progress. Her mother was doing much better thanks to powerful medicinal pills they could now afford.

  He was once again reminded that in the world of cultivation, everything revolved around obtaining benefits.

  “Senior Brother, do you need to leave so soon? You only just arrived,” Naia said in a pleading tone. She wore a simple yet gorgeous emerald dress, perfectly matching her green eyes.

  “Apologies, I have a lot of preparations to make for the Life and Death Divine Realm. Once I return, I’ll make sure to visit. I’ll bring you a nice gift—something old, and hopefully expensive,” he chuckled.

  “Senior Brother is making fun of me! You will spoil me rotten. I’d prefer if you stayed a while longer than showered me with gifts,” Naia pouted, crossing her arms.

  “I’ll stay longer the next time I visit, I promise,” Cade said, feeling a little guilty. The warmth he felt from the elven girl was genuine. He was happy he could help her—especially in light of what she’d been through—but Grandmaster Erendriel’s words still echoed in his mind. He had to keep his own progress in focus at all times.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  After leaving, he spent a couple of hours watching the beautiful elven speeder being professionally cleaned at the Flightworks—the primary location for anything related to flying vessels. The flier was then checked inside out for any issues by the experienced elven artificers.

  Their service wasn’t cheap, but he had to be sure the speeder was fully operational. He learned the vessel was made far before the Exodus, close to 150,000 years ago. Its name was Arelune, which meant “tear of the moon.”

  It made perfect sense, considering it resembled a stretched teardrop and its color matched that of the moon quite well, being maybe a touch warmer.

  “I have a proposition, Fellow Daoist Ward,” the elven owner of Flightworks said. “Let me take it off your hands for half a million crystals. It’s more than a fair price. It can be considered an important cultural artifact for my kind, and it’s in great shape. I’m happy to pay a little extra.”

  However, Cade politely thanked him for the offer, unwilling to part with this elven work of art just yet—though he did promise to keep it in mind. Instead, he offered to pay for them to teach him all the ins and outs of operating this ancient vessel.

  Fortunately, the head artificer didn’t seem angry with his refusal—as if he had expected it—and happily agreed to his proposal, but only after Cade promised to come to him first if he decided to sell the flier.

  Ten hours after his departure from Sword Dao Mountain and with over 120,000 crystals less in his pocket, the Asura returned to the monastery. His focus switched now solely to training—Four Faces of War, Feral Path, and the Mist Resonance Art, with breaks for sparring with his friends to help them prepare for their duels.

  Cade’s main concern with using the crimson mist publicly was always its uncontrollable terror effect. Now that one was separated from the other, he could train in the Resonance Art to his heart’s content.

  There were far too many weird and obscure cultivation arts in the world, so as long as something didn’t directly tread into the so-called demonic path—mostly shapeshifting abilities—he would be fine.

  Once ignited, the mist was capable of blocking an attack from a puppet—though it would disperse immediately after—but it was its ability to restrain and bind the automaton that really impressed Cade. Each time the puppet tried to land a decisive blow, glowing arms made of mist condensed around it, grabbing its limbs, rooting it in place, or forcing it to lose balance.

  Because he could ignite only a small portion of the mist and didn’t need to maintain it for long, this strategy was very efficient on blood qi.

  Once he sent Legion to attack on his own, while he switched to Feral Path and its powerful hand-to-hand techniques, the puppet at its current difficulty setting no longer presented any threat to him. Legion’s dark form sliced through the air at extreme speeds, and Cade’s mental guidance granted him an amazing level of control without having to direct the spirit’s every move.

  He knew this was one of the major advantages of flying spirit swords and what made these weapons so deadly in the olden days. However, at its current capability, even after he filled the sword to the brim with blood qi, it couldn’t maintain flight for more than half an hour without another infusion. Still, this was more than enough to put most enemies through absolute hell.

  Once Cade saw the potential his various combined arts had, he knew he had chosen the right path. Since then, he divided his training between sessions with a strict martial arts focus and those where he utilized all his core tools to the best of his ability.

  The puppet’s cultivation for the mist-centric sessions was promptly adjusted to early True Core, with its difficulty remaining at 10. It was a huge leap but a necessary one in order to maintain a sense of challenge. He needed to grow, not be coddled.

  The one thing he found himself missing was another weapon, ideally one with a fairly long reach. Feral Path was amazing—but he had to get in his opponent’s face in order to use it. Unless he was fighting in very constrained space, another longer weapon to replace Legion would’ve been perfect.

  Cade considered a polearm—possibly a spear—as Four Faces of War taught both the sword and the spear. However, his second weapon needed a good slicing edge for Law Severing Art. For now, he had too much on his hands anyway, and decided to postpone this matter.

  Five days after his return from Oasis, it was finally time for Brickwall to test himself against an inner court disciple in the arena. Naturally, Cade had to be there to support his friend. He was prepared to watch a tough battle, but apparently, he had overestimated Reeve’s opponent.

  It was a beastkin qi cultivator named Turak, who was ranked 21 from the bottom of the Low Ladder. To say that Reeve demolished him would have been an understatement.

  Turak was prepared for a battle of attrition, but Brickwall did exactly the opposite. He immediately swarmed the beastkin with powerful blows, using Hak Fu conversion arts to release powerful energy projections, which mimicked clawed tiger swipes.

  Conversion arts were in great demand among body refiners, allowing them to convert the power of their physical attacks into medium-range qi strikes—perfect for when the enemy was trying to maintain distance. In many ways, these arts were similar to how his Mist Resonance worked.

  In the end, Brickwall had launched three law severing attacks in total, all three landing successfully. Less than half a minute from when the fight began, the spectacle was over, with Reeve roaring victoriously, standing over his opponent’s unconscious, bloodied form.

  “I knew you could do it!” the Asura yelled over the crowd, clapping like a maniac. King was likewise giving his friend a standing ovation. “Though I’m not sure the kick in the balls at the end was necessary.”

  “You have to make sure your opponent isn’t getting up, Cade, it’s basic practice,” Reeve grinned, very satisfied with himself.

  “Boss, you just watch me next. I will turn that woman into a sieve,” King exclaimed, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, a gleam in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. He was to face Daria, a body refiner one stage above his own. She was ranked 18 from the bottom of the inner court’s Low Ladder.

  “I definitely will,” Cade said, patting the ex-bandit’s shoulder.

  Six days later, it was King’s turn, and he didn’t disappoint.

  Cade was a little concerned for his friend. Although King’s sword ability and his Law Severing Art were notably better than Brickwall’s, his cultivation was low. That was a big issue when dueling someone like Daria, whose muscles had muscles, and who won her duels mostly through brute force. Her direct, overwhelming style was a solid counter to King’s more finesse-centered approach.

  But the Asura didn’t take into consideration Darkheart’s cultivation arts, which he had lent to King. It turned out one of those arts was a sword formation art. Those were already rare, but apparently this one was quite special even among formation arts.

  Cade now watched King Dong’s figure surrounded by a storm of 36 spinning sword projections, each a dark whirlwind of death. The ex-bandit was essentially unapproachable unless someone wanted to lose a limb. King had surprisingly fine control over the formation, and he didn’t let Daria land even one blow. She ended up with a dozen deep, steaming wounds—as King’s projections were enhanced with water severing laws.

  She only survived because the monastery’s dueling rules banned killing blows.

  Brickwall’s eyes nearly popped out as he watched King’s performance. He too had no idea of his friend’s true ability.

  “Bastard, you concealed yourself well!” Reeve roared, laughing loudly.

  Cade looked at the preening ex-bandit, nodding with respect. Mastering sword formations was extremely difficult, very taxing on the mind, and formation masters were universally dreaded. It seemed that King had proclivity towards controlling multiple weapons at once.

  Their friend stepped off the dueling platform and swaggered towards the two of them like a peacock king, with a broad smile plastered all over his face.

  “Damn,” Cade chuckled. “Reeve is right, you surprised everyone!”

  “Boss, it’s thanks to you. This Obsidian Cyclone Array must have been destined for me. I have never thought I’d learn something as complex as quickly as I’ve managed to pick up this sword art. Actually, it’s so much more than that,” King remarked with pride.

  “Fortunately, Daria wasn’t as tough as I worried she might be, though I’ve still burned through nearly all of my qi. It’s good she finally went down; otherwise, I’d be in trouble,” he added with a relieved expression.

  “Who cares? What matters is that you won!” Cade wrapped his arms around both of his friends' shoulders. “Now we can scour the Divine Realm together and fill our pockets!”

  All three shared greedy grins. Nothing made cultivators happier than a lot of shimmering, softly chiming spirit crystals.

  It was time for their preparations and hard work to start bearing fruit. In a couple of days, all duels would be suspended to allow the disciples to focus on getting in their best shape. In a little over a week, all three major organizations were to gather in the underground ruins, where the elders would finally open the gate into the Life and Death Divine Realm.