Outside the Empires

Seth sighed deeply as he slowly formed his beach umbrella as the sun rose. The annoying thing was that there wasn't even any sun. Heat and light just literally came out of nowhere, as the skies were perpetually dark grey, and thunder rumbled somewhere in the distance. Seth squinted as he stared high into the dark clouds. Thunder was not supposed to rumble. It hadn't done so yesterday. This could only mean that it would rain today. While rain normally put him in a terrible mood as it was on a rainy day, ten years ago, that he had lost his father in an accident, and his mother had fallen into coma, seeing the sky darken more and more filled him with inexplicable joy. Then, a tantalizing scent wafted into his nose. The ice on the floor had thawed out by now, and the hot sand had returned to its broiling level state. To his amazement, the flesh of the humped demob that had tried to make him its dinner yesterday was sizzling due to the heat.

"So the sand really is hot enough to roast stuff..."

He was exceedingly glad that he had the scroll's power, if not, it would be his flesh sizzling on the sand. Only the weapons he had made from the scroll's energy could do damage to the creature, seeing as Baek Sunghoon's spirit level beast greatsword had broken in one attack. But his stomach began to rumble really hard.

The sizzling flesh smelled like roasted beef, even from the distance where he was sitting, and man, did he miss beef. He had survived on nothing but rice, sushi, and wine, while he was at old man Shiro's, and then it was Soju, something that resembled pork belly, and water while at Baek Sunghoon's. He really missed a good old Starbucks, or even a KFC. And now, the sizzling flesh began to smell like roasted chicken.

"Rubber duck?"

He had picked up this philosophy from watching a particular kids TV show as a kid, and it hadn't failed him even once. The black haired youth had no idea what would happen if he were to eat the meat of a monster, more so a vile abomination like that... thing, he had fought yesternight, but his hunger got the better of him. He picked up the beach umbrella as he took a step forward, only for him to sharply recoil.

"What the fuck is this?!"

The sand was so hot, that it had burnt his feet merely by stepping on it. Even more surprising was the fact that he was putting on the custom made sandals of the forger's sect. Sandals made to resist the heat of the exceedingly hot forging room stone floor.

"How am I supposed to do this?"

He could not leave the spot where he was, and he could not go back to where he used to be. The beach umbrella had protected the sand under his feet from getting too hot, but as he had shifted from his original position, the heat was swiftly spreading from the other sand around it. To add to his pain, a small creature walked up to the meat sizzling in the distance, and began to eat it up with a gleeful expression on its face. This beast was equally terrifying, as it had a bald human head with empty eyeholes on its fleshy, yet a bony mouse like body. What kind of an abomination was this?!

However, Seth was so consumed by fury that it's terrible look did not faze him one bit. Let night come, he would make sure to hunt down that son of a bitch and eat it up as his dinner.

***

While somebody was busy cursing at an odd looking demon that ate his kill, a red haired guy walked amidst the scorching desert sand. Seth saw this from a distance, and his jaw instantly dropped. The young man was barefooted. This sand was enough to burn his foot after stepping on it for half a nanosecond, this sand was enough to roast the flesh of a vile demon. Yet, this guy leisurely walked on it like it was... well, sand.

"What do we have here?"

The youth narrowed his eyes at the beach umbrella.

'How the hell is this here?'

He could not understand how an umbrella had been smuggled into the Trial grounds. Under the umbrella, Seth sat in apprehension, but chose not to answer immediately. Instead, he stretched and turned his head.

"Who are you?"

The young man frowned deeply, then began to laugh.

"Obviously, you must have been descended from one of the lower classes."

Then he held Seth by the hair and lifted him off the ground. Seth's hair hadn't been cut for almost three months, so it was quite long by now.

"I, am Middle Stage Cultivator at the Qi Reinforcement realm, Baek Daechul of the Second Empire. Oh? And you must be that Nascent Body guy who thought this all was a child's play."

Seth was effortlessly lifted off the ground by his hair alone, but did not seem to be in any form of pain. He was slightly scared, but the beast of yesterday was by far more terrifying than this guy.

'Well, it seems like I've found the arrogant young master.'

The arrogant young master cliché always ruined every eastern fantasy he had read for him. That was a trope that he really hated.

"Well, Baek Daechul. I am Sethren Serpentis of... uh, The Earth. And I request for you to put me down."

In a hand to hand fight, he would certainly lose to this guy. The Qi reinforcement realm gave its users an invisible body shield of solid Qi. But, his cheat was a great variable. Baek Sunghoon's flying greatsword had been shattered by strike from the hunched demon from yesterday, yet a demon level sword would be able to injure someone on the Qi reinforcement realm, but the weapon created from the scroll's power was able to cut through the flesh and bone of the humped demon. What would the weapon created from the scroll's power be able to do to a person of the Qi reinforcement realm, then?

With the scroll's power, he could win any battle.

Baek Daechul scoffed.

"There is no empire called The Earth..."

"That's cos I'm from outside the Empires."