Rules

"Say, master, why do you think that the Pavilion Owner is staying in the forest?", Xiao Yan curiously asked.

"No matter how much I think about it, I can't find an answer.", his master's, Lao Yang's, voice sounded in his ears.

Although Xiao Yan couldn't see his expression, he could feel that his master was shaking his head.

"Actually, although the forbidden areas are dangerous, they are not forbidden areas because they are dangerous, but they are dangerous because they are forbidden areas.", Lao Yang explained.

"All the forbidden areas have one common characteristic: they have their own independent rules."

"For example, this forest is also called the Mirror Forest by Saints and Great Saints."

"That's because every time a human cultivator uses an ability in here, the forest will store it and project it at later times."

"The 'later times' part might be 5 seconds later or 1000 years later."

"This means that while walking in the forest, you may meet the projection of a random Saint's blow head on."

Xiao Yan quickly understood his master's words.

It's as if the forest copied the blow of every cultivator and pasted it back on random places at random times.

"It's not only this forest that has strange rules like these."

"On the other side of the world, there is a sea called Heart Dream Sea."

"Every time the sun sets, every cultivator that in its vicinity will be teleported to another world."

"No one knows how to get out of that world, and even the people that did get out have their memories wiped out."

"Legend has it that the world in the Heart Dream Sea is created out of the dream of a Great Emperor.". Lao Yang elaborated, hoping to motivate Xiao Yan.

In this world, no matter how strong you were, there would be someone or something stronger than you.

Great Saints might seem strong, but in front of a Great Emperor they were similar to ants.

Even Great Emperors had the will of Heaven above them.

In Lao Yang's view, the Sun Empire was but a tiny speck on the map.

Lao Yang didn't want Xiao Yan to become complacent with his current achievements here and fail to realize his potential.

As Lao Yang was teaching his disciple, Li Yuan had entered his hut and sat on the bed.

He didn't immediately start cultivating, but tried to fight solutions regarding the problem he faced.

No matter what, he wouldn't be able to get more HS if Xiao Yan remained his only customer.

He might be the Son of Luck, but that didn't mean that he could afford to continuously buy information.

Unfortunately, Li Yuan was currently stuck in the center of a forbidden area.

He could guess that even if he waited for decades, he will not be able to meet a single other person.

Wouldn't he have exhausted his lifespan by then?

'If the cultivators don't dare to step in the forest, I can only use force to have them come.', Li Yuan calmly thought and a plan was formed inside his mind.

'System ...'

A week later, in the capital of the Sun Empire named Dawn, a very important meeting was secretly taking place.

Inside a luxurious golden palace, a middle aged man with golden hair and eyes was sitting on a throne.

The throne was made out of precious metals and exuded a majestic aura that would shock any ordinary person.

This middle aged man was the Emperor of the Sun Empire, Emperor Wu.

In fact, although he wasn't the one that founded the Sun Empire, his fame was larger than even the first Emperor.

This was because the first Emperor didn't found the Sun Empire alone, but together with the first Sect Leader of the Snow Heaven Sect.

The imperial family was supposed to rule over the common people, while the Snow Heaven Sect ruled over the cultivators.

This led to a very weird dynamic, where although the emperor technically ruled over the empire, it was only in name.

Moreover, as the years flew by, the influence that Snow Heaven Sect had in the empire became stronger, while the imperial family's influence decreased.

That was the case until Emperor Wu inherited the throne.

Emperor Wu was the 8th son of the last emperor, and was regarded as untalented in both cultivation and politics.

What no one knew however, was that for many years, Emperor Wu had hidden his own talents and persevered through the humiliation.

When his father died, he showed the cultivation of the Nascent Soul realm and with various schemes, coupled with his personal power, managed to win the fight for the throne over his older brothers.

Then, he didn't stop there.

The first thing he did was firing the ministers that secretly supported the Snow Heaven Sect, while consolidating the imperial family's power.

If it was not because he was afraid of the trump cards of the Snow Heaven Sect, everyone knew that he wouldn't hesitate to start a civil war.

Around the emperor, the empire's most powerful people stood, with nervous expressions in their faces.

For the past few days, the already irritable Emperor Wu's temper had become even worse.

"Is the information contained in those scrolls true?", Emperor Wu asked in a calm tone.

Seeing him calm, the ministers didn't feel better, but instead became even more nervous.

Silence took over the palace and none of ministers wanted to come forward and answer the Emperor's question.

Suddenly, a short fat man took a step forward.

"Your Majesty, according to our initial investigations, the scroll's content seems to be true.", the man said.

Even though you wouldn't be able to guess it from his appearance, the short fat man was not only the Prime Minister of the Empire, but also a powerful cultivator.

His name was Shao Peng and he had been following Emperor Wu since he was still a prince.

This, coupled with his cultivation and the Shao family behind him, made his power over the court second only to Emperor Wu.

If it was any other Emperor, they would be wary of such a person, but Shao Peng was Emperor's Wu childhood friend.

He was one of the few people that supported him when he was still regarded as a trash.