20 Continuing Forward

The darkness abruptly gave way to light. Shura opened his eyes. The dark night's sky spread out in the open. Pale moonlight and starlight lit up Shura's field of vision. A long mountain chain was on the horizon. All around him was an endless forest.

This wasn't right. Something was wrong. Something must've gone wrong during the transfer. This wasn't Aggradise Continent. There was no sign of devastation and ruin at all. Shura looked around further.

The three moons in the sky confirmed his suspicion. He wasn't even on the same planet anymore either.

Shura closed his eyes and once more tried to teleport. Symbols and orbs of light floated around him as an intricate and invisible teleportation formation was constructed with him as the center. The formation immediately reached full power and operational capacity. He conjured the image of the ruin with the teleportation formation in his mind as he had done before. He concentrated. Nothing happened. He was shining brightly in the sky, but he didn't disappear and space didn't distort to allow him to travel vast distances. Space was still beside him.

He outright couldn't even teleport this time. He couldn't influence the spatial energy in his surrounding at all, not even a little bit. The lights dimmed and the formation dispersed.

"Why?" Shura muttered. "Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?"

Nobody heard him and no one answered him.

He was almost back. Just... almost. But now, where the hell was he?

Bright lights flashed in the far distance. Smoke rose up in the air. The sound of combat and screams could be heard. Shura's hearing was very good so he could hear them all very clearly.

Shura felt very strongly this moment. The setback just as he was about to reach what he wanted shook him deeply and his emotions poured out. He was sick and tired of the cultivation world.

He'd rather be a mortal filled with an abundant life than live as an immortal or a god forever, doing nothing but killing each other for resources to increase their power. It was all a hollow world filled with nothing but dreams like mirages. Everyone still died in the end before they became a god or an immortal. Even gods and immortals died killing each other. What was 'immortality' or 'omnipotence'? What did it matter?

This was another such world of cultivation.

"What should I do now?" he asked himself.

Shura sank deep into thought for a long time. He let out a long sigh. Finally, he knew what to do. A determined light shone deep in his eyes. There was only one thing he could do, he had to keep striving.

If a Spirit Emperor couldn't do something, then a Spirit Sovereign could, if even a Spirit Sovereign couldn't, then a Spirit Saint could! And if a Saint can't do that, then an Immortal, and if not even an immortal could do it, then he would become a God!

Cultivate! Cultivate! Cultivate! Upgrade! Upgrade! Upgrade!

He will become more powerful and then try again to teleport back. And if that didn't work. He'd let nature take its course and ascend to a higher realm once he became capable of ascending. The way back must be somewhere out there for him to find.

He was going to increase his strength and become capable of more and more things, one of them was to simply be able to return to Claira. Increasing his strength was the only path in this world that he could take, so rather than standing still in despair and disappointment and stagnating he would walk this path right to the end.

As long as he became a Spirit Sovereign he would try again. If he was still unable to return, then he could at least ascend to a higher realm and find answers there. The higher realm should be more powerful and thriving. He didn't believe they didn't have the methods or ways to travel through the boundless universe filled with innumerable worlds and realms. A solution to any problem could surely be found there.

Increasing his strength again became his sole goal.

I will dominate this world and use its resources in order to become a Spirit Sovereign to either be able to teleport back or break through the worldly barrier of this world and ascend to a higher realm.

In order to begin his grand design, he needed a few things first. What Shura needed at the moment was information about this world. Only with such information could he devise a plan of action and the details involved.

He was once again a fish out of the water, a stranger in strange lands. An outsider in a world of insiders. He truly yearned for a place of his own. He had not known peace for a long time.

Another sigh escaped from his mouth.

…

A Spirit Emperor was the strongest being in this world. A Spirit Sovereign who could break through the void and ascend to the heavens was nothing more than hearsay and legends. Spirit Emperors were at the top in this world. Nobody could find out the secret to a higher peak as they all either died from fighting each other or due to old age.

The Spirit Emperors of this land were the kings and emperors of nations and sect masters of sects. Shura found this out after he took over a nation for himself.

Shura had spread his enormous mental awareness over the land. He conveniently found the capital of a huge and sprawling empire and went there. He occupied it with overwhelming might. The emperor there was no match for him. Those who were willing to serve him could do so. Those who didn't could leave. And for those who were hostile towards him and tried to kill him, he had killed them.

Strength was everything. He had not deprived anyone of their life or anything truly important. If some people couldn't bear to leave the comfort and luxury of such things as being royalty and the power that came with it and wanted to kill him for it, then they would die!

In this manner, Shura occupied one of the countless empires on this land. Shura became Emperor Shura. The empire became the Skyward Empire overnight. He chose the name to remind himself why he was doing all of this, to reach beyond this world's sky in one leap!

Becoming a ruler of a country also brought along with it many problems. Since he was the ruler, he had to deal with them. Ever since he took over the Skyward Empire, many officials resigned. He didn't know why anyone would do this just due to a change in the ruler. Nevertheless, the government was being plagued with a lack of manpower and talent as a result. As ridiculous as it sounded, it was a fact that he had seen with his own eyes.

One man couldn't do everything by himself, especially govern a massive nation, unless he was a god. Not only was he not swimming in an ocean of resources he could use to cultivate, but the empire was also lacking fund to even sustain its continual existence. Frequent wars with powerful neighbors and a host of disasters and dissent had weakened the nation substantially.

'Fuck, did I just take over the weakest country with the most problems around?' Shura thought as he sat on the emperor's throne. No wonder the Spirit Emperor who was the emperor was so weak.

The officials in the throne room all smiled at him. He knew what they were thinking. All these problems were now his problem. They were hoping he would solve it from them.

'Fuck,' Shura cursed in his thoughts again.

He was starting to regret becoming a ruler of a country. The responsibility wasn't small at all. Where were the benefits? There wasn't any he could use right now!

Shura shook his head and with a thought, he disappeared from the throne room. He was now standing above the capital among the clouds. Moonlight lit up his face deep in thought.

With another thought, he disappeared. This time he appeared in the capital of another empire and killed its emperor and took over that nation and killed anyone who resisted as well.

Why bother rectifying and building up? What he lacked, he would augment! If his empire was weak, he would add stronger empires to it. And if that still wasn't enough, he'd add more!

He did this more than a few times. By the time the chickens were crowing and the morning sun was rising, the Skyward Emperor became one of the big players of the continent. Shura's empire turned from a mediocre empire into one of the big superpowers of the world and became capable of vying for the hegemony of the entire world.

His money problem, talent problem, and manpower problems and more than a dozen other problems of rulership were all swept away by his one night of adventure. With an enormous empire running as well-oiled machinery with countless clogs, he wasn't worried about not being able to use it for his own ends at all.

By noon he was sitting in another emperor's throne in another huge city. He had decided that this city would become Skyward City, the heart of his vast empire.

By evening his empire was running smoothly, and by midnight no outsider or insider could tell the difference between him and his newly formed empire from an experienced emperor who had been ruling a nation that had a history of a few hundred years.

Everything was proceeding smoothly.