The next step of the journey.

Liang Chen couldn't help but cringe somewhat when the 18 people knelt and called out his name and the titles they had picked for him. It was the same back on his home planet, even the Bloodwind Code was the same, why were people so damn eager to attach titles to others? Yumao wore a proud expression and raised his head high, accepting the reverence of these people as if it was targeted at him. Liang Chen gave Yumao's head a soft flick, shaking his head at the kneeling people before turning his gaze onto the remaining people that Yumao had rescued from the castle.

"Stop that, just call me Liang Chen or something, titles like that are just pointless. As for you guys, I've got a bunch of people hidden away in that eagle-shaped ship over there, they said they were bringing a bunch of younglings to the Wind's Embrace Academy on the Yellow Winds planet. Those of you who are with them can join up with them, and those of you who aren't are free to do as you please. I'm heading to Scale Gathering planet to pick up something, those who wish can follow me there."

The expressions of over half of the remaining people instantly brightened upon hearing Liang Chen's words, they had been worried about their friends and family ever since they were taken away. The rest of the people, who didn't seem affiliated with the group of people that pointed Liang Chen in this direction, quietly exchanged a few words before turning to Liang Chen and bowing gratefully.

Liang Chen responded to the bows with a nod of his head, raising the pink orb that Yi Xue had thrown at him. All the people around him, and even those who were hidden away within the eagle-shaped ship, were sucked into the city within the orb, which was then promptly tossed into Liang Chen's interspatial ring. Liang Chen's interspatial ring was the one he had received from a trial in the Mystic's Hidden realm, it was forged by someone known as Sovereign Blacksmith and was thus far better than a normal interspatial ring.

Ignoring the fact that the interior was utterly massive and could even carry minor living beings like plants and some special herbs, just the fact that Liang Chen could speed up and slow down the passage of time within the ring was astonishing enough. And right now he tried out just that, he slowed down the passage of time within the ring as much as he could, turning what would normally be one minute into 500 minutes.

This was an interspatial ring forged by a supreme existence, and it was different from other items in that it didn't need any Spirit Stones or the like to be utilized, it barely cost Liang Chen anything to slow down time within the ring. He sent in a sliver of his consciousness and was immediately assaulted by a nauseating feeling that caused him to vomit, the sensation of having his mind move at such vastly different paces was simply too much,

He wiped away the vomit around his mouth and made sure that none had gotten on his robe, a slight smile forming on his lips. The reason time could be sped up or slowed down so much within the interspatial ring was due to the fact that it shouldn't be able to hold major living beings like animals or cultivators, but now he had found a loophole in it. He felt a slight interference within the interspatial ring, the orb was hampering the process of slowing down time by at least half, but even then he was still able to slow it down by five hundred times, there were more than just a few applications for something like this.

But for the moment, Liang Chen had no plans of entering the orb himself, he walked through the air and entered the eagle-shaped ship. He sat down in one of the two gathering areas within the ship and sat down on the same couch he used earlier, turning his head to look out the window. The reason he didn't enter the orb right away, and also why he slowed down time within it, was simply that he had something he wanted to do in peace before he started actually interacting with the other people.

He had to get to Scale Gathering planet so that he could pick up the information on the Sealing God Empyrean, he would then break the crystal given to him by the Nine Star Demon God and move on to the major universe, after that he could start interacting with them. Slowing down time within the orb was out of consideration for those within it, they would probably get fairly antsy and nervous if he were to just leave them there without any news for over a week.

When Liang Chen was stopped to deal with the bandits, they had already been traveling for 10 days so he was only two days away from Scale Gathering planet, these two days passing in a flash. Liang Chen gazed through the window of the ship and looked at the planet, which was verging on being almost 1.5 times as large as his own home planet. This planet had gotten the name Scale Gathering for a simple reason, it was the largest planet within several million kilometers and thus all the hopeful cultivating talents that left their planet would find their way here. Some would end up spending the rest of their days here, each one becoming another scale that gathered together to form the grand dragon that was the history of the planet.

But none of that history or grandness registered in Liang Chen's eyes, he was fully focused on the largest building on the entire planet, the branch of the Heaven's Secrets Company. The building stood out from all the others, it was nearly 400 meters tall and looked like two vines that were coiling around each other, it would be hard not to notice it. When the ship got closer and was forced to descend, Liang Chen barely noticed that there seemed to be a myriad of carvings covering the two vines.

But their concrete shape didn't register in his eyes, he was so tunnel-visioned on getting the information that nothing else really registered right now. He released the people from within the orb and bade them farewell, only keeping Yi Xue and the other 17 people, his new disciples, within the interspatial ring as he split away from the other people. He had entered the building and made his way up to a counter before he knew it, stating his name and what he had come here for, as well as who was supposed to have sent it. And less than 15 seconds later, he held in his hands a stack of papers containing nearly the entire life's story of the Sealing God Empyrean.

Liang Chen was barely able to wait until he entered his ship again before he started reading, but the more he read the further his heart dropped. Qing Lan Yong entered the Primordial Immortal realm at 68 years of age and could easily be considered an extravagant talent, but the Sealing God Empyrean, Lin Sangye, entered the Primordial Immortal realm at a mere 13 years of age. If there truly existed people blessed by the heavens, then Lin Sangye was exactly one such person. The laws he cultivated were sealing, gravity, defense, and speed, each one a truly top-class law. His most recent display of power put his cultivation in the middle stages of the Primeval Sovereign realm, the realm directly beneath a Universal Heart.

If Liang Chen thought that having Lin Sangye as an enemy was suffocating before then now it felt like the weight of the entire multiverse was bearing down on him. Liang Chen carefully stored away the papers, taking several slow and deep breaths, his eyes growing sharper and sharper. It didn't matter how strong Lin Sangye was, he had robbed Liang Chen of his sister and a friend, he had caused so much bloodshed that Liang Chen could not spare him. No blade was forged without getting hammered intensely, this terrifying pressure would just be another part of the forging process, no more and no less.

Liang Chen gave Yumao a few pats on the head, partly to please Yumao and partly to help himself calm down again. He was already planning on leaving this universe, but reading the report only affirmed his determination. Lin Sangye was the closest person to becoming this minor universes' Universal Heart, even now his Sealing God sect had spread to cover over 80% of this universe. There was no home or safe place for Liang Chen here, he had to leave if he wanted to live.

Liang Chen swiped his interspatial ring and took out the grape-sized silver crystal that the Nine Star Demon God had given him. Crushing this would open a path to the major universe where both he and Yan Ling were currently present, it would also take him to the universe where he could find Purgatory. He knew the risks, he knew the dangers ahead, he knew that this journey would be longer than any he had done before. But even so, he crushed the crystal without hesitation, a silver ripple running through space and swallowing both Liang Chen and his ship.

--

The crushing of the silver crystal resonated with the one who had created it, the purple-haired and gray-eyed Nine Star Demon God, Yao Jun. He was currently sitting in the air amongst the clouds, his impossible to read eyes looking at the young girl sitting with crossed legs in front of him, struggling to keep herself in the air. Her emerald hair danced in the strong winds that brushed against them like waves, gathering around Yan Ling as if she was the center of the ocean.

The veins on her forehead and neck were starting to bulge out somewhat under the strain and pressure of trying to control the wind through the principles that Yao Jun was trying to teach her, it was different from anything she had ever seen before. But then Yao Jun opened his mouth, all the wind around them simply vanishing as if it had never been there to begin with.

"Your boyfriend has entered this universe, even brought a few people with him it seems. He's your goal, isn't he? Then you'd better focus more on your cultivation, otherwise, you'll lag further and further behind. And trust me, that's a rather unpleasant feeling."

Yao Jun's voice was similar to his eyes, it was impossible to detect his emotions from them, a sensation that made Yan Ling somewhat uncomfortable as it made it hard to figure out what he was thinking and what the best response would be. But upon hearing him speaking, her eyes couldn't help but shoot open, her two differently colored pupils sparkling with light.

"Really? He's already arrived here? You won't go back on your words, right, I can go see him whenever I want? And oh, thank you for giving him that gift...Master?"

Yan Ling ended her sentence somewhat uncertainly. In truth, she hadn't interacted much with Yao Jun, he seemed somewhat indifferent to things not close to him, so she had no idea what she should actually call him. She didn't expect too much of an answer, at best a nod as acknowledgment. But to her surprise, Yao Jun's eyes actually flashed with a tinge of emotion as he spoke.

"Don't call it a gift. To people from a minor universe, getting a ticket to a major universe is more of a curse than a gift. They come here without knowing much and bring with them arrogance that they themselves didn't even know that they had, arrogance they thought they had squashed long ago. And that arrogance causes them to lose things, it gives them scars that might never heal. He could hide within his minor universe, but he won't be able to do so here, he'll step onto the grand stage and have his name spread further than ever before if he survives. So you'd best be prepared, that boy might lose more than he gains after coming here."

(End of book 4, The Weeping King shatters Dragon's Gate.)