31 Heavenly Lords
A year passed in an instant. The time has come for the Gods to arrive, it is a little bit late than predicted. Nevertheless, time in the heaven doesn't work at the same pace as it is in this world, so nobody complained about it nor can they do anything about it.
As long as people know, the Gods never set foot on this world for more than a hundred years. These deities are worshipped by all the people for their deeds in the past, which is written in ancient texts, as the only source of people knowledge about them.
The Gods worshipped in one country are not the same wih the others, most of them are not. For a religious person, living in a sect with different beliefs can be challenging. Luckily Lu Yan was never a religious person, so he never had a hard time adjusting in the Wing Sect.
The Gods from each country seems to represent sect's names in that particular kingdom. The Gods in Ji Country looks domineering with half beast and half human forms. While here in the Yin Country they are more elegant with the form of humans with wings.
Both of the Gods Lu Yan had seen however, are not that elaborate. They completely resemble humans, it just their auras are completely breathtaking, literally making Lu Yan suffocate in front of them. Surely Lu Yan is excited and curious to see these Gods that are coming, whether they will truly have wings like depicted in the mythg or not. Those excitement and curiosity that he shares with all of those in the sect.
The Gods visitation news only shared to inner disciples, and they were forbidden to tell other people. Even then everyone in the sect knows about it, even a lot of civilians come to the sect to pay respect to them. Surely the sect stops them from coming, not even all the sect disciples can have the privilege to see them.
Lu Yan is one of the few disciples that is lucky enough to welcome this Gods. He had been chosen as one of the participants of the upcoming tournament. Along with Guo Feng, Liu Fang and Cao Fan he is chosen to represent the sect as beginner disciples.
Since the Gods do not acknowledge those people that yet to reach the Qi Absorption Stage, disciple at the 1st to 3rd level of Qi Absorption levels considered as beginners.
As of now the four of them are at the same level cultivation of the 3rd Qi Absorption Stage. The sect had chosen them and giving them crazy amounts of potions to push them into this level. They also given the cottages around the sect main building at the center mountain.
Their only concern is that Guo Feng will push over his cultivation base into the 4th level. Luckily for them this time Guo Feng understand their reasoning. He focuses his training on the magic and fighting technique over the Qi Cultivation.
After spending some time together for a while, the four of them become closer with each other. Especially for Lu Yan and Cao Fan, they become so close with each other despite their age difference. In every gathering the two of them always presence while the other two sometimes was not there. Liu Fang being the only girl out of the four cannot join every conversation had by the guys, while Guo Feng just secluded himself sometime.
Cao Fan is the senior that picked the three of them at the first day they join the sect. At first, things get a little bit awkward between them, but Cao Fan being cool about their quick progress make it easier for him to blend in. He throws praises over his three juniors once in a while, accepting his lack of talent so they can catch up to him.
Cao Fan himself was considered a talented disciple before. Him being a participant in this tournament is the proof. Talented and hard-working, Cao Fan had his fair share of praises as a disciple. It just the other candidate's talents are just out of this world.
Today is the first time Lu Yan see the teleportation portal himself. Right atop of the mountain, in a place cannot be seen by others below. The portal placed in the highest place to avoid disturbance when they connected to the heaven.
The teleportation itself made by stones making huge circle altar at the ground. Nine pillars surrounding them, standing high pointing to the heaven. The pillars look like it was standing straight, but it actually tilted a little bit to the center. If someone take imaginary lines to add from their tops, these lines will actually meet at a certain point. The point they made is actually the teleportation portal at the other side.
This huge portal usually only used for one person each time it is open. For this once, there is going to be four Gods that are going to come. This information has been issued before their arrival to make preparation for their accommodations and other necessities.
Everyone presence has been waiting for a while. The patriarchs stand quiet in front of the portal, while the other discussing their curiosity with the person besides them. Their chats stopped when the sky starts to change color. It darkened in a second and the nine pillars starts to glow. Even if Lu Yan never seen it before, he knows the teleportation has start.
A light fired from the sky towards the middle of the circle, or it might be four lights. When the sky is dark, a light from it just blinds people who seen it so Lu Yan cannot be sure of how many lights he saw. Then the whole huge portal starts glowing brighter than the pillars. Everyone starts to shut their eyes or cover it, since the light hurts the eyes trying to take a peek at what its covers behind.
When the lights dimmed four figures can be seen standing at the middle of the circle. No-one doubts that these four people are the four Gods descend from the heaven. Except for their auras, their appearances are no difference than normal humans.
Two Gods upfront looks like teenagers, an arrogant boy and a mischievous girl. One of them looks like the patriarch, an old man in robe. The last one is a dignified middle age man, neat beards and well build body. This last God is exactly like the Gods depicted in the lore, of course minus the wings.
When four of them start to walk forwards, the crowds spontaneously take a bow. They just have this kind of power. Lu Yan is actually the last person to take that bow, he just did it because he did not want to draw attention. He might not the only person here to seen a God before, but his relationship with the God he met before is special. The patriarchs bow to them even in the heaven, yet Lu Yan jokes around with a God before. Lu Yan respect him surely, but not to the point he should bow every time they met.
Although younger the dignified middle age man seems to be the leader of the four. He is called Lord Jiang Wei, the title he shared with the oldest God, Lord Zai Mao. The only girl there is Lei Fang and his brother Lei Wang is the two younger Gods accompanied them.
The Gods having a brief conversation to the patriarchs before decided to leave. They supposed to rest at the temple at the branch peak of the mountain. The main mountain of the Wing Sect is large with few peaks in it. While the portal placed in the highest peak, there is a unique peak in the mountain looks like a tree branch. This peak is separated by the other part of the mountain like a hand reaching out from the body. In the palm of this hand is a beautiful temple that rarely visited. Besides of the rough path to get there, this temple also considered sacred. That is why even though it is not guarded, most of the time people knows better not to disturb this place. "Resting place for the Gods", who knows it will be literally used for that purpose.
The Gods walking towards the temple direction, while everyone following them behind. At the edge of the mountain, they get a good look at the temple, it is a beauty to behold. A grand temple above the sea of clouds. It is bigger than the peak itself, so when you see it from above, it felt like the temple is floating.
The patriarchs start their magic chants and floating towards the temple. They are soon followed by the two younger Gods, adding more awe from crowds. Flying is a high-level magic that is not easily learned. Only the patriarchs are able to reach those distance flying, or even dare to try it. Yet these young Gods are doing it easily.
For most people in the crowd this will be the first time for them to see this level of magic performed. As their mind marvel at every single detail of that event, they already prepare the story to brag about this. Never once they ever thought, that all of it will be forgotten just a few seconds after. As an even more shocking magic will be performed after. The kind of magic that will make everything else pale in front of it.
The two senior Gods still casually chatting while the five people racing towards the temple. When they finally decide to get there, the impact is huge. They are not simply floating. Both of them concentrate a little bit, then wings started to form behind their back. Real wings, bird wings to be exact.
Lord Zai formed white wings that is so delicate and beautiful to look at. Combined with his long white hair and beard, it felt like he has turned to become a huge white beautiful bird himself.
Lord Jiang is bigger than Lord Zai to begin with, so it is only natural his wings are bigger. It just nobody expects the difference to be so far. The wings he cast has at least twice the wingspan of Lord Zai's wings. These wings also taller than him giving more dignified look than even before. Dark brown wings that became the largest wings ever seen, at least for most of the people there.
They look exactly like what Gods been depicted in the lore. When that wings come out, the crowds cannot hide their awe and excitement. Some of them scream and some crying, but most of them gone down to their knees upon this event. True Gods has descent to this world.
One flap of their wings and they already catch up with the others. Another flap has got them so far away from the crowds. The third one let them arrives at the temple.
Soul Core Stage is the highest cultivation possible for humans. After reaching that stage they would be considered a demi god and usually will ascend to the heaven. Yet, everyone knew that the real God are still standing far above them.
Some lore mentioned there are humans that can stand equal with Gods once they reach certain level of cultivation. Yang Zong the Great is a lore of a human that come back to this world after became a God. Whether it is a myth or not, this story gave hope to people.
Heavenly Palace Realm is the cultivation stage one must reach to become equal with the Gods. The person able to reach that stage will be called the Heavenly Lord.
The Soul made by qi provide a huge energy source, only to be limited by the feeble body host it. To be able to overcome this limit, this Soul has to be infused with that body itself. Creating a completely new organ inside the cultivator's body called the Heavenly Palace to link the soul with the rest of the body.
At this realm a cultivator will be able to use their qi to gain full control over their body. Body and soul become one, strengthening each other instead of restrain them. The cultivator can now use their Qi to modify their body, enable it to withstand the destructive power of the qi itself.
Whether it is the substance, shape or size, it does not matter, everything can be modified. If the bones about to break, the qi will strengthen it and change it to become a metal. The flesh become as hard as stone and the blood becomes fuel to the magic casted.
Not only to survive, they are able to modify their body further to transform their limbs. The hand will become a blade when they need to cut something, carapace will show up when get attacked and wings generated whenever they need to fly.
All of that is only up for the imagination until now. When they see someone grew wings behind their backs, their life and their beliefs are about to change.
