32 A journey across space

A crimson shadow clashed with a jade shadow under the light of the blazing sun. The more their weapons clashed, the more precise their attacks became. Kaelen felt his mastery advancing at a rapid speed as he sensed every stroke of his spear becoming more natural and fluid than the one before. His power also increased while he gained better control of his weapon, making each attack deadlier than the last. His spear turned into a crimson-bronze flash as it clashed with the jade-pink sword lights over and over again. Sounds of intense metal collisions reverberated and sent waves that traveled through the mountain.

"Almost there," Kaelen thought to himself. He felt he was an inch away from reaching total control at a hundred percent power. He wielded the spear masterfully, executing beautiful maneuvers and expertly waving his spear around, striking at weak points of his opponent. Naturally, Yu Hao counterattacked with his own weapon, successively blocking each strike. Reddish-pink sparks blazed with each contact of the weapons.

"Cataclysmic Spear Barrage," Kaelen shouted as he whipped a dozen times with his spear blade at his opponent; like a dragon lashing out it's tail.

"Discordant Dragon's Sword," Yu Hao answered with an attack of his own, stabbing and slashing multiple times to block the powerful strikes.

Seeing the latter not budge, Kaelen switched his attack form,

"Coiling Pandemonium," Kaelen wielded his spear with one hand as he executed a series of elusive thrusts and snake-like movements; very difficult to parry.

Still,

Yu Hao managed to parry most of the strikes but left an opening as he was pushed back slightly.

"Annihilating Thrust," seeing an opening, Kaelen took the chance as he drilled out a mighty thrust of his spear. A crimson dragon's head formed at the tip of its blade, quickly gathering strength as he struck forcefully with all his might.

"Shit," noticing he left an opening and the incoming attack, Yu Hao quickly tried to react, slashing at it with his sword. "Sword Intent, fifty per cent! War Dragon Stance; Battle Dragon's Claw!" lifting his sword overhead, a pure, powerful jade sword-intent gathered above him, forming three huge claw-like blades. He slashed down at the coming spear, the three claw-blades falling down with his sword forming a huge three-clawed beastly hand that chopped at the crimson dragon's head.

A dramatic explosion sprung forth in response to the clash. A figure was sent flying dozens of meters away, crashing into a huge tree with a not-so-shallow sword mark on his chest.

"Shit, I went a bit too strong on that." Seeing the flying figure and sword mark on his chest, Yu Hao couldn't help but curse at his negligence. He quickly dashed toward the figure.

..

"Cough-cough..." Kaelen coughed out some blood as he struggled to stand with the help of the tree, his complexion slightly pale. He looked up only to see a vague shadow getting closer.

Seeing the approaching Yu Hao, he smiled lightly as his consciousness wavered, saying, "Senior apprentice brother, you're really strong. That last strike was one of the latter techniques, wasn't it? So co…" He barely finished his sentence before passing out, collapsing on the ground.

"Junior Brother!!" Yu Hao quickly approached his unconscious body and placed his palm on his chest, checking his vitals. Seeing that Kaelen was still breathing, he let out a breath of relief and took out a yellowish-green pill with three inscriptions on it. The pill exuded a refreshing aura of vitality. He put the pill into the unconscious boy's mouth and pushed it down his throat.

"That could've been quite dangerous." He softly exhaled.

Meanwhile, a tall figure appeared beside him, startling him.

"Indeed, you went a bit hard on that last strike," the figure said.

"Master." Yu Hao exclaimed in surprise; his expression was quickly replaced by an apologetic one.

"Don't worry, he wasn't that hurt. Besides, I never told you to limit your sword-intent, so I was aware this would happen. He's a tough kid; that won't do anything to him. He should recover with the help of the healing pill you gave him within a day or two," Long Aotian said, reducing the guilt in his disciple's heart.

"But will he be able to practice with his injury before his fights with those beasts? If it leaves an internal wound that flares while he fights, it may be a bit dangerous. Maybe you should push back his time by a few days." Thinking about those terrifying beasts, Yu Hao couldn't help but worry, and some guilt resurfaced on his face.

"No, that won't be necessary. His bloodline is of a level I can't gauge, so I can't really say how long it will take to completely recover. I just know that for you and me, it would take around a week, so it should only take him a few days at most," Long Aotian said.

"Alright." Trusting his teacher, Yu Hao calmed down and recovered his qi while watching the boy.

"When he wakes up, tell him to take a day to recover and not practice." Leaving those words, Long Aotian disappeared from whence he stood.

"Understood."

...

While unconscious, Kaelen spirit's hovered in a dark space.

When he collapsed, instead of his mind going blank, he actually stayed conscious as he watched his body fall and everything that happened afterward.

He saw Yu Hao's worried expression, which warmed his heart a bit. "I have a good senior brother," he thought. He then saw his master appear and heard what he said about him being okay. Although it showed he had faith in Kaelen, he knew that wasn't just the case because he wouldn't have needed to appear; it meant he was worried a little and had to confirm himself, which also made Kaelen feel thankful that he had a good master and senior brother.

Afterwards, he felt his spirit rise from his mortal body into an astral copy of him. This astral projection floated above the sky, and he could see the entire Free Immortal sect from where he stood. While he admired the sect, a mysterious force called to him from way outside the boundaries of the True Martial Great World.

He suddenly felt a powerful force calling onto him from deep space, pulling his astral projections towards the source. He felt his spirit traveling at incredible speeds as he flew far into the sky. He looked down from above once he was outside the boundary of the great world and saw a gigantic sphere of mostly water with a few massive masses of lands and countless smaller floating lands.

"Is this the entirety of True Martial Great World?" He gasped at the sheer size of the sphere. Calling him a grain of sand in front of this supermassive world would be generous. He then looked around the sphere and saw the three moons that surrounded the world: two silver and one purple.

"Ah!?" Gazing at the big moons in the sky, he noticed that though the silver moons were inhabited and completely barren, with only empty surfaces marked by countless craters of different sizes, he could actually see some palaces and buildings built on the purple moon.

"heavens, there are living things on the moon!" He exclaimed in shock. He saw a gigantic silver-purple wolf flying above the purple palaces; it was so big that he could tell despite being a good distance away. Atop the wolf's head, he saw a small figure barely distinguishable from the countless silver and purple furs.

When he focused his gaze on the figure- a godly sight; It was an unimaginably beautiful woman. So beautiful that he compared her to Elder Miao and could confidently say, she was even above her in terms of beauty, which he previously thought couldn't be possible. Even her presence exuded an overwhelming nobility and grace that Kaelen found hard to describe. She had long purple hair that stretched to her waist, a light silver gown that covered her extremely curvaceous figure, a face that would shock even the gods and couldn't be dissociated from godhood in sheer magnificence.

"…" Kaelen was left speechless as he attentively looked at the figure atop the moon wolf.

As if sensing a gaze, the woman looked toward his direction.

"Shit, not again." Seeing her turn toward him, Kaelen exclaimed in urgency as he tried to hide before realizing he couldn't use anything, for he was completely alone in space; it was like being naked in public but surrounded by water; he accepted his fate.

To his surprise, though the woman looked at his direction, her expression didn't change much except for a slight air of confusion appearing in her eyes. She turned around without much of a reaction.

"She can't see me?" Kaelen realized that the woman couldn't see his astral projection at all.

Taking his gaze away from the mystical purple moon, he looked at the direction his projection was being pulled. To his surprise, it was-- The Sun.

"I'm being attracted to the sun?" Seeing the destination of his astral voyage, Kaelen exclaimed. Indeed, the force that attracted him came from the sun. His astral body moved at quicker and quicker speeds the closer he got, soon traveling at speeds faster than light; which would've destroyed a mortal body like his. Thankfully, his current form was pure spiritual. He traveled at light speed, countless asteroids and other spheres turning into streaks of light as he blew past them. He only saw the shining sun get closer and closer, becoming increasingly large as he flashed through space. An unknown amount of time later, all he could see was a golden world of fire. He looked up and saw flames, same down, left and right. Only turning around would he see everything else; a few gigantic rings of light, on which many worlds hovered.

The sight was of a greater shock than seeing living things on the moon or the purple-haired goddess. He couldn't even tell which one was the true martial great world and could only tell the area it was at by following the trajectory he came by. Turning back to the world of gold, he floated deeper into it. As he wandered into the world of fire, he actually felt warmth as his astral body heated up slightly. He could say with certitude that if someone else's astral projection came into the suns, it would've extinguished, for the flames within burned even the void, as space distortion noise could be heard everywhere. Yet he was alright. While he questioned himself, a burning feeling erupted from his heart area. He could see a golden amber seed float where his heart would've been.

"That is?" The golden seed was one of the two sealed beads he previously saw in his heart space.

"It actually came with me. But it's clearly a material object; if it was with me this whole time, that woman would've noticed something." Not able to wrap his brain around anything that was happening, Kaelen decided not to think about it too much. He kept following the calling force deep into the sun. Soon, he arrived in its inner regions. Another shocking sight was laid in front of him: A beautiful golden city of enormous size, in which countless fiery spirit entities lived. At the center of the city, there was a gigantic golden-red tree that stood tall above everything, only the upper part of its trunk could be seen, its root seemingly closer to the core of the sun.

"The attraction force actually comes from that direction." Sensing the calling from the tree, Kaelen kept floating towards it. Around the city, there were also many floating immortal abodes in which some mysterious figures sat cross-legged, meditating. This time, the entities actually noticed something as they all looked at him from their abodes.

One such entity was a handsome, golden-haired middle-aged man, dressed in a yellow Daoist robe. He looked mostly human except for his height and his eyes; he was six feet tall sitting, and his eyes differed slightly from normal: his pupils were a vertical line instead of an oval shape, like a giant void crack in a golden sea. An otherworldly ephemera emanated from his figure.

"OH? What a peculiar sight. A Xiantian spirit form floating in the core of a medium-sized sun without extinguishing; even I can only stay here thanks to my immortal level treasure abode. Interesting boy. I even sense an imperial dragon might; it's the purest I've seen too… I'm almost tempted to swallow him whole, but it's only a spirit form. And who knows what business he has here." The human-like entity said to itself before closing back its eyes.

Similar reactions occurred in the other immortal abodes; all of them deciding to mind their own business. A few minutes after he entered the inner layers, Kaelen felt many terrifying eyes prying on him from the floating abodes. His body trembling as he felt completely terrified by these prying beings.

"What a monstrous presence. What are those people? I wonder how strong they are compared to old Dai… Thank God, they left me alone." Kaelen thought to himself. He continued toward the core of the city as he flew past the abodes and the giant sun palace. Soon, he was in front of the tree.

Extending his hand, he tried touching it, and to his surprise, he could actually feel something. He felt the usual tree-like texture he'd expect from a tree, but it had an additional warmth that he felt in his soul.

A yellow aura slowly seeped into him from the body of the tree toward the amber seed in his heart space. Additionally, he felt his soul form getting stronger as it gradually gained a more solid appearance.

"This feels incredible." Basking in the yellow aura, Kaelen felt a sensation unlike anything he had ever felt before.

"This way, child…" An ancient voice slowly called up to him from the blazing depth below the sun tree.