The Heavens Store
'What's going on? I'm not dead?!' A young man thought in confusion as he awoke in a field.
Looking around, the first thing he noticed was how peaceful it was so he knew he'd reincarnated before the Earth's Awakening, although he didn't know by how much.
The second thing he noticed was his location, a beautiful grass of a flower field just outside of a forest, not unlike a memory of his from centuries ago.
Maybe he really did go back, after all, it'd been decades since there was anything besides devastated lands on Earth; centuries of war made sure of that.
He struggled to recall his last memories, the memories of his final stand, and his death.
By then they'd already exhausted almost everything, countless people had betrayed him, and honestly, there was no hope left, but no matter what, he refused to go down without a fight.
However, what he never expected, was that after all those years of defending, they'd been merely defending against the enemy's scout army!
It turned out that they only lasted that long because the invaders originally didn't find anything they were interested in.
When the main army finally arrived, they were wiped out like they were bugs.
Exterminated.
It was such a devastating blow that it was still hurting him in the next life!
He'd even lost most of the excitement of reincarnating.
Losing everyone buddy he loved once, was already once too many.
'Even if I have the advantage of my memories, we were so far apart I'd never be able to win...' He thought ruefully, and his mood instantly plummeted.
He shook his head to clear his mind, and then he started to consider taking his loved ones and fleeing, but just as soon as he had the thought, a sharp pain assaulted his brain directly and it hurt so badly that the world seemed to lose its color.
Just before he hit the ground, a voice resounded within his mind, filling him with a pure and terrifying power unlike ever he could've ever imagined even with his last life's experiences.
~I didn't reincarnate you so you could flee. That isn't like you at all Hazed Wall!~
"Who are you?!" Hazed shouted in a panic, but when he looked around he was completely alone.
The deep voice continued in his head.
~I'm the very Earth you stand upon. The very Earth that you defended even when all others fled. And It is exactly because of that reason that I've purchased your rebirth from 'The Heavens' to give you... to give 'Us' one last chance. Now my fate is tied to yours, and that's only part of the price of reincarnation.~
Hazed couldn't help feel bothered by something, and then it hit him,
'Wasn't it 'Mother Earth', not 'Father Earth'...?' he wondered in his heart.
However, apparently even his heart isn't off-limits to The Earth itself, because the voice became gentle and feminine, which disturbed him on a whole new level.
~I hope that's better my child. Soon I will lose my memory of you reincarnating like everyone else, it will be permanent too. That is unless you can accomplish something special, something you shouldn't worry about for now. So for now you won't remember, but when you need to it will appear. Convenient eh? ~
Suddenly the world's power became excited, dancing here and there and causing a swirl of pure energy right in front of Hazed and a Ninety-Nine Star Chroma Cloud to form above him.
Chroma Clouds might be the most iconic, 'Thing', in all of the World of Cultivation.
Since every time a Natural Treasure is formed, a Life Treasure is birthed, a Master Treasure is created, a Divine Treasure falls from, 'The Heavens'(Store), a Demonic Treasure climbs from 'The Beneath', a Spirit is born, a Treasured Realm opens, or a piece of land is blessed to become a Holy Land; a Chromatic Cloud is conveniently there to reveal a basic outline of the Treasures Strength and Tier, and subsequently, Value.
The Chroma Clouds, as their name implies, come in many different colors, and the strength of the treasure that summoned the cloud can be inferred from how many colors said cloud has.
They go from a single colored Chromatic Cloud, which can be hard to tell if it's even a Chroma Cloud because the first color is almost ironically pure white... all the way to the thousand colors Chroma Cloud that only certain true gods that focused on Eye Evolution can see every color.
Since most Chroma Clouds colors can't be seen by the average Cultivator, the Chroma Clouds always have countable stars within them. Each star equals one color.
And a Ninety-Nine Star Chroma Cloud clearly meant that this Mark was unbelievably valuable.
In his entire last life of over five centuries on an 'Awakened' Earth, Hazed had never seen a Chromatic Cloud with more than Seven Colors...
Just as he was beginning to worry, the voice resounded inside his head once more.
~Finally, Although I will forget you I will leave my mark on you so that The Heavens and I slightly favor you. This will give you a bit of 'good luck' but nothing more so don't rely on it.~
Hazed would've laughed at those words, saying that the mark was 'just a bit of good luck', but he was in too much pain to do so.
That whole time he was wondering what could be so valuable to summon a Ninety-Nine Star Cloud, and the first thing Earth does is say, 'It's just a bit of good luck', as if it's trash!
The moment that the Earth finished its sentence, the Chroma Cloud locked onto him like it'd found its prey and then directly drilled into his body, causing him to contort on the ground in a brand new and improved pain before the world dimmed and he lost consciousness.
This was not how the Chroma Cloud was supposed to work!
It's not a Chroma Tribulation Cloud!
Unbeknownst to him, a beautiful multicolor cloud appeared on the unconscious Hazed's right cheek. This magical mark was very nifty, it even came with a passive skill of sorts.
One that was a clear ode to its Father Chroma Cloud.
The Chroma Cloud Mark can't be seen by regular people, and it's unique for each Cultivator who looks at it. The more colors it has, and the more intricate it appears, the more the viewer is 'favored' by The Heavens and Earth.
This is the same 'favor' that Hazed's granted from the mark, the favor that Earth called 'luck' since that's basically what it is.
***
When Hazed awoke he was within a whole new world, one that seemed sorta like a dream world, but seemed more tangible.
As a former Immortal he could tell that this wasn't a dream, don't underestimate the experience and Spiritual Presence of an Immortal.
Other than his memories and whatever 'gift' the Earth left for him the largest benefit of reincarnating was that your Soul retains its strength, allowing for a massive Spiritual Presence even as a mortal.
Well, at least before The Awakening.
Sadly, what he focused on the least were Soul Techniques, otherwise, he'd be truly unstoppable.
Right now, even though he could kill someone with his Spiritual Presence, the expenditure of using it that way was far too large to be used repeatedly, and refilling it after would take forever.
The world that he entered looked like it was coated by a deep blue fog unlike any he'd ever seen.
"Welcome to 'The Heaven's Store'!" A massive 'man', or maybe 'monster' would be more accurate, suddenly said to Hazed after he appeared in front of him out of nowhere.
It took all of his efforts not to fall backward on his ass, something that he actually got a compliment for in the mind of the man-monster.
This Man-Monster was massive, standing at least 18 feet tall(five meters), a rough guess made because he was at least three times of Hazed's six-foot self.
But it wasn't just his height that made Hazed call him a Man-Monster.
No.
It was massive fangs, horns, claws, and wings that made Hazed call him a Man-Monster.
All three of which were solid gold and had intricate patterns on them, making them look much more valuable and dangerous than any treasure.
He assumed that the patterns were like arrays of some kind, but it was impossible to tell.
It should be pointed out that he wasn't a hideous monster, if anything he was more of an attractive devil than anything else.
"Oho, it really bet everything on you, didn't it? I can't help but wonder how a planet from the lowest level can afford all of this, but seeing as The Heavens itself has given the ok who am I to question anything…" The Man-Monster said more to himself than anything else.
"Uhm… hello? I'm Hazed. By the way, where are we?"
"Ah yes, my name you won't be able to pronounce but you can call me by my title, Heavenly Son of the Blue Fog-Sea, Watcher of the West, and Master of Metal, if you like, or just Blue will do.
And we're in the Divine Realm's Spirit World. More specifically this is The Heavens Store!"
"Wow, the Divine Realm is real?!" Hazed asked with mild surprise but then his jaw dropped and he asked, "Wait, did you just say The Heavens store?!? As in a store run by Heaven?! That's awesome!"
He quickly put his hands up as almost a reflex and blushed, adding a, "My bad, I'll try not to be so excitable."
"Haha it's fine, you come from the lowest plane it's amazing you've even heard of the Divine Realm. And basically, but you don't get to purchase anything. You'd have to be at least at my strength to be able to purchase something yourself. Well, that or find a voucher, but only those with fate can find a voucher."
'Blue' led Hazed towards what appeared to be a massive city in the distance at a walking pace while they talked.
"How did you hear about the Divine Realm?" 'Blue' asked casually.
Hazed felt like there was a loading bar in the bottom right as they walked on nothingness towards a city that never got closer. However, he still answered calmly as he could, "Well, the people who killed me and I'm assuming my world, since it reincarnated me, were talking about trying to return to the roots, the Divine Realm, and I'm guessing that means 'Earth' purchased something for me?"
'Blue' nodded and they continued to chat and walk for a while.
The solid ground seemed to appear directly under their feet and disappeared behind them as they walked towards the city in the blue sea.
Everything in between them and the city looked like a sea of blue fog, even the city itself simply looked like a floating island atop the endless sea of blue.
After talking for a bit, Blue brought up Hazed foes because he had a good opinion of him so far and he might be able to help. The truth was the walk was more symbolic than anything, it was something that Blue had picked up over his countless centuries working here.
He found that only interesting people get sent here, and the one's who appear boring who get sent here are hiding something truly interesting underneath.
"If your foes are really from the Divine Realm you have your work cut out for you, do you know anything else about them?"
"Of course I fought them for centuries… They call themselves the Deity Race while in the 'Lower Plane' but I learned that they're a subservient race of the Light Race called the Lightkeepers."
He sighed and felt like he had to add, "We never underestimated them because they Servent Race, but they still wiped us out like we were nothing. Even after reincarnating, I felt it was hopeless, at least before coming here."
"I hate the Light Race! Those cocky bastards only know how to betray and enslave others! They can never be trusted! *Sigh* I'm sorry, I wish I could help some more but I can only follow The Heavens Will. Speaking of, we've wasted enough time chatting, let me show and tell you why you're here." 'Blue' said with a strange glint in his eyes.