Prologue
In a world divided into two paths –Mage and Warrior, The Initiate realm comprises eight distinct layers: Strength Training, Flesh tempering, Organ and Vessel reconstruction, tempering the muscles, bones, marrow, refining the blood, and pulse Condensation, each with its own unique challenges and benefits. To overcome these hurdles is to step on the road to power beyond human capabilities.
The Novice realm is the next step for those who have achieved mastery of the Initiate Mage realm. It consists of eight layers that build upon the skills and knowledge gained in the previous realm, taking the practitioner's abilities to new heights.
Adept Warrior, Unvarnished Warrior, Specialist, Grand Warrior, Arch Warrior, Transcendent Warrior, Realm Combatant, and finally Divine Crossing –the start of true cultivation and the first step into the Planetary Realm
Each layer of the Novice realm presents its own unique challenges and rewards. The first layer, for example, focuses on mastering the manipulation of energy fields, while the second layer emphasizes the use of astral projection for exploration and communication. As the practitioner progresses through the layers, they gain greater control over reality itself, culminating in the ultimate goal of a mortal –achieving Divine Crossing.
Now, I find myself floating on the surface of the River of Time because a warrior at the Half-step Divine Crossing stage personally destroyed my body. However, before he could destroy my soul, I used an archaic technique that fairied my soul here.
Now that I look back, I was grossly weak and wildly overestimated my abilities. I was consumed by revenge and only saw red. As I watch the history of my world play out in the void, a sense of clarity hits me and I begin to assess my past to the time of my death to the finest details.
I wonder if I got a second chance, would I give up on revenge? It was only a fleeting thought, but if I could do it again, I wouldn't allow it to consume me.
Well, being that I have nothing but time, let me tell you of the event that caused ripples so ferocious that it even disturbed my generation and beyond.
"I don't want to hear your story…I just want to get out of here and return to my own world." The entity beside me was a rather irritable man, "Hell, I never asked you to explain anything, to begin with!"
"Well, there isn't a way out in the foreseeable future so why don't you just listen." I replied.
What can I say, I felt like talking my heart out. Being in a void with memories circumventing your existence makes one a bit emotional and contrite.
I was born in The Infernal Abyss. A realm at the edge of the cosmos. Long forgotten by its cosmic counterparts, shrouded in darkness and mystery. The Infernal Abyss has survived eons of war and strife. It was 400 years into the New Dawn Era, the Wind Serpent Continent was divided into three empires and three kingdoms. Though stable, the world of cultivators is cruel.
However, that's what made the Infernal Abyss unique and worth living in. No matter the danger and cruelty, the chance at immortality is ever-present. To break into the world above the skies and caress divinity. Human or demon, it did not matter on the road of cultivation.
In the middle of the Wind Serpent Continent, the beginning of a world-shaking event occurred. Every corner of the continent rumbled with high intensity. Surface cracks upon the terrain gradually became vast canyons. Imperial and monarch cities activated protection arrays in fear of the unknown. For fourteen nights and fourteen days, the continent did not sleep as it was terraformed in a way that no one alive had ever experienced.
When the continent fell to silence, every expert, known and hidden, looked towards the new territory in the wind serpent continent's center.
Sects, clans, academies, cults, lone cultivators, the three empires, and three kingdoms readied for war. The new land became known as the Ancestral Demon God Land. With its grand arrival, the mysterious lands were anything but simple.
To the far southwest corner of the continent are the lands of the Huyan Kingdom. The seaside Kingdom had a fresh sea smell and an ever-constant ocean draft that eases the sun's heat. The cultivator atmosphere was a lot calmer in the Huyan Kingdom than in most of the territories on the Wind Serpent continent due to the dwindling quality of resources.
The Huyan Kingdom is based on the only significant gulf on the continent. Bordering the Pill Kingdom and Wind serpent empire to the north and south is the raging Lamic Sea, home to the ancient Lamia Clan.
Within this Kingdom is where our tale begins. More precisely, with the Broken Spear Sect. The Sect of my ancestors and the third great Sect in the Huyan Kingdom, but nothing compared to the empires' great factions or those of the magnificent Pill Kingdom.
And like many people and organizations, the Broken Spear Sect always had its own agenda when it came to the Ancestral Demon God Land. The Broken Spear Sect aligned themselves with the Huyan Kingdom as long as they held mutual interests and never crossed each other's paths.
With that being said, the Broken Spear Sect is controlled by three major clans. Gu, Ogun, and Zhao. Their series of unfortunate events begins with the discovery of an imposing palace in the Ancestral Demon God Land. Surrounded by old treasures, with value immeasurable, the Broken Spear Sect couldn't contain their excitement.
"Ogun Feng!" The deep voice of the Sect master rumbled. He was speaking to my father, a dragon of a man, built like a tower.
" Sect Master." Ogun Feng put his fist to his palm and bowed in respect.
"Gu Long! Zhao Leijian! Collect treasure for your clans, then we must go before the others arrive." The Sect Master ordered. "The heavens were on our side, but nothing lasts forever. Especially good fortune."
He had no idea how right he was that day.
Calmly moving through the chambers, Ogun Feng had a small creature in his pocket, hidden from his sect mates and the sect master.
"LuLu, show big brother the best treasures." Ogun Feng whispered.
The brown and golden-haired monkey jumped free from Ogun Feng and began to bounce from chest to chest, chamber to chamber. Ogun Feng trusted LuLu with his life. Ogun Feng never doubted the treasure that the Golden-back Dwarf Monkey chose.
When the four men lacked space in the interspatial rings, they were astonished. Their spatial rings were full, the Inner area still had enough wealth and cultivation resources to prolong a war for generations. While the core chambers hadn't been explored yet.
"Control your greed! We have to go!" Gu Long shouted. "Our storage rings hold more than enough to propel our clans to new heights for ten generations."
Gu Long was always a sensible man, I didn't meet him until later in life. One could say that Uncle Gu Long was the blessing and curse of my Ogun Clan. However, that's a story for another time.
The men of the Broken Spear Sect tore their eyes from the grand sight and forced their bodies to move. At the highest speed they could manage, the four men walked through the core chambers, searching for an exit.
Like many fortunate encounters, they usually came about in life-or-death situations. When the men of the Broken Spear Sect were fleeing the pursuit of experts with cultivation levels that drastically exceeded their own, Gu Long led them through a door that turned out to be a spatial array, transporting them to the core chambers of the ancient palace.
"Dammit!" Zhao Leijian shouted as he punched a stone wall.
"We knew this place was a changing maze when we decided to run deeper in." The Sect Master chided Zhao Leijian. "Now keep calm. We have to go."
The men were trapped and couldn't find their way. Once the palace shifted, its layout would be changed forever, fated to never repeat a past layout. As the men searched for a special mark or hidden array, the chambers soon began to rumble as powdered earth and rubble fell from the old stone ceiling.
"Cave in?"
"No… a door!" My father shouted. "Quick, swallow your interspatial rings."
Ogun Feng didn't hesitate to eat his storage ring. His Sect brothers looked at him with concerned faces. But as my Ancestor once told me, Ogun Feng was his most decisive and eccentric child.
The sound of grinding stone reverberated through the halls. Ogun Feng quickly snatched the storage ring from Gu Long's finger and gulped it down with one big swallow.
A thought suddenly came to Zhao Leijian, and he finally realized why Ogun Feng swallowed the rings. Unfortunately, Zhao Leijian just wasn't quick enough.
Pah!
To the incoming party, it looked like Zhao Leijian was trying to hide his spatial ring, offended, a man in crimson robes launched forward, and Zhao Leijian received a devastating palm that sent him crashing into the earthen walls.
"Urrggh!" Zhao Leijian spits blood onto his elegant robes as the metallic ting of his ring bounces on the palace floor.
This is the moment when everything changed between the four friends. Fate was odd like that.
"Tsk. Tsk. You think you can steal from my Vermillion Empire?" a soft and haughty voice spoke.
The Sect Master, Gu Long, and Ogun Feng immediately bowed as two empires and a kingdom walked through the door. Much to their surprise, King Huyan Xiong was amongst them.
Huyan Xiong is a man that the Kingdom had high hopes of. But the Sect Master was one of the first to find out that he was an utter disappointment. Another selfish king.
Huyan Xiong immediately moved to Zhao Leijian's side and picked the spatial ring up. "As agreed, the Broken Spear Sect is from my Kingdom. What they find is mine."
"Hmm" The princes waved their hands, and their imperial guards relaxed.
Opposition meant death in such an unfavorable situation. All the Sect Master could do was grind his teeth in rage as Huyan Xiong stole Zhao Leijian's earnings. And Zhao Leijian could only curse as his brothers watched.
"Sect Master Wei. Could you tell us the way to the treasure, or is it all in this spatial ring?" Asked Huyan Xiong as he looked the men up and down in an attempt to spy spatial rings among them.
The Sect Master rose to his feet and gestured for all to follow him. He then led them to random chambers of treasure. The palace was continually changing, and though some rooms were less in value than others, they all thanked him but offered the Broken Spear Sect nothing.
The Imperial and King's guards took all they could. Though the young prince of the Wind Serpent Empire found what he believed would change his Imperial family's course, a Divine-tier Dragon Pearl.
It's important to note that the Wind Serpent Empire once controlled a third of the continent and renamed the continent after itself. However, after centuries passed the Wind Serpent Empire is nothing like it once was.
The room suddenly began to shake, and every hall in the palace shifted at once. The young prince of the Wind Serpent Empire was startled, and the dragon pearl slipped from his hands.
Taking advantage of the confusion. LuLu lept from Ogun Feng's robes and snatched the Dragon pearl as Ogun Feng snatched up LuLu. The Sect Master caught one glimpse of the scene and grabbed King Huyan Xiong before the Broken Spear Sect vanished.
Enraged that a monkey from a small sect would dare to steal from him. The Wind Serpent Prince and imperial guards gave chase. Turning a few corners, Gu Long caught a glimpse of a simple sigil on the wall. He suddenly stopped and slapped his hand against the sigil while spewing cyan-colored arcane energy.
The wall gave way, and a black-gold portal was formed. Everyone smiled at Gu Long before stepping through the secret passage and vanishing from the core chambers.
When the young prince appeared, he was seething with rage but had no one to vent it on. He took one look at the portal and knew better than to blindly jump in.
Somewhere in the Ancestral Demon God Land, The Broken Spear Sect and King Huyan Xiong fell from the sky and landed with a great splash.
Rolling onto the bank, the men laid on their backs and panted after the grueling experience of spatial travel.
"Ahh. That was worse than the last time." Zhao Leijian groaned.
"I think they were two different teleportation techniques." Gu Long added.
"Let's just get out of here before someone else wants to kill us." Ogun Feng urged them
"Why did you take me from the chamber? There was more treasure to be had." Said, Huyan Xiong.
Gu Long, Ogun Feng, Zhao Leijian, and Sect Master Wei all looked at the King like he was a stark raving madman.
'He can't be serious.' one thought
'A Wind Serpent and Vermilion demon beast sharing with a human?'
'No wonder the Queen is being boned by a Blood Fiend.'
'This guy is incredulous.'
All the men had varying thoughts of the King.
"No. There was not." Replied the Sect Master. " They would have killed us all the moment we left the palace. We're in a foreign land, the King should not be too trusting. "
"Well, my guards are dead for sure now. The Ancestral Demon God Land is vast. Treasure in one palace is but a drop of water in this great ocean." Huyan Xiong argued.
Ogun Feng scoffed as he pushed himself up. "Do what you want. I'm leaving before someone decides to put my head on a pike. Uncle Gu Long, let's go."
Gu Long raised his hand, and Ogun Feng helped him up. The odd spatial technique had torn some of their muscles. Though Gu Long suffered the most as the tendons in his legs were ripped apart like wet paper.
Huyan Xiong looked at the two men leaving with no respect for his station. Exasperated, Huyan Xiong thought of ways to educate Ogun Feng.
"What will you do now?" asked Sect Master Wei.
Huyan Xiong faced the Sect Master. "I will leave the Ancestral Demon God lands and return with more men at a later time."
"Will you continue to fight for control?"
"As long as the Pill King is my ally, yes."
'A fish in a shallow pond will make a fool of the Dragon. He most certainly is a fish, but this is no shallow pond by any means.' Thought Sect Master Wei.
He then bowed before he helped Zhao Leijian up and took his leave.
All the while, my father and Uncle Gu Long spoke of the matter from different perspectives. While he expressed his panic and worry about enemies giving chase, he knew that many people in the world were like Huyan Xiong –greedy and arrogant.
With that perspective, my father and Uncle Gu Long explored more of the mysterious lands on their own. They figured the Wind Serpent Prince would fight for the treasure at hand and strike later to get back what he lost. Eventually, they managed to find many treasures including a medicinal fruit that healed Gu Long's leg.
As time passed, one week, eight days in total, a great voice boomed with instructions to leave the lands or risk being trapped in an ancient array for the next 100 years, reverberating across the lands. It was the emergence of a great land guardian –an authority that overshadowed all powers on the Wind Serpent continent. Thus establishing the cycle of the Ancestral Demon God Land.
As explorations ended prematurely, vendettas were born, and everyone wanted their pound of flesh. Though the wars had ended promptly after, dark clouds were approaching with horrendous thunderstorms from aboard.
A year went by, and a cold, deathly aura became abundant across the Wind Serpent continent land as cultivators and world powers fought their battles in the shadows until the real victors were decided. A shuffle of world powers took place and the world calmed as the illusion of peace was maintained.
When the sky cleared and all seemed well, the Ogun Clan of the Broken Spear Sect fell. To ensure his clan's survival, Ogun Feng sacrificed himself by detonation to allow his family to escape.
These events left consequences that rippled through the years. Ripples so strong that they even affected my life to the point of my ultimate demise.
"Now I float on the River of Time with you and for the first time I see my life amongst the world's history," I told the man beside me. "Say…What was your world like?"
"Your world is fucked up." he replied, " Mine, mine was full of technology, not magic…"
Suddenly, in the center of my chest, a two-meter long crimson feather ignites and swallows my soul form. As the flames consume my being, I look up to see the memory of the day that my life changes.
"Wait! No! Take me with you, bastard!" the being beside me shouted, "I listened to your god-awful story now pay me!"
I ignored him. I wanted to go there, I wanted to save myself and my clan. I have to go there, I must stop the assassin and change the fate of my clan.
The memories in the void also ignited into a flaming whirlpool. The next moment my vision went black and I could feel myself, once again, being pulled through time and space.