Time slowly passed.
Bai Lufeng consumed the Seventh State Earth Pill. Tao cultivated while looking at the saber door. Yan Zaizen focused on recovery.
Thirteen years passed in a blink. To Yan Zaizen, Bai Lufeng or Tao, this was very little time. Yan Zaizen had fully recovered from his wounds. Bai Lufeng formulated his Aurora Soul. It was silver-grey in color. Tao cultivation raised from the late-Origin Core to the peak-Origin Core Realm.
With Yan Zaizen's vast resources, his progression was profoundly quick. Not to mention, Yan Zaizen gained even more wealth. The twelve Heavenly Genesis experts gave up all their possessions. Yan Zaizen was going to kill them, but they decisively swore soul oaths.
In the soul oaths, they would keep all information about Yan Zaizen and his realmship hidden. They would give up everything they owned in their Heavenly Shrines and even turn in eighty percent of their respective forces wealth in exchange for their lives.
Yan Zaizen contemplated this. He could just kill them, take their heavenly shrines, and rob their respective powers. If anyone got in his way, he could have slain them. However, he agreed to let them keep their lives.
Instead, he agreed to their arrangement under two additional conditions. He still stole every one of their heavenly shrines. They were outraged, but clenched their teeth and accepted it begrudgingly. Not to mention, they had to swear a soul oath to never take deliberate actions against him again, not simply keep his identity a secret.
With that, he let them go. No future problems, no genocide, all profits. At the moment, his wealth was stupendous. He pretty much claimed a good sixty percent of an entire realm's worth. It felt good.
"Your Aqua Solar Sphere concept truly leaves one in wonder," Pinaka commented. In Yan Zaizen's soul form, a water sun floated about radiating true water law energy.
"minor-Manifestation Level." Even he sighed at his comprehension capabilities. As he understood more laws, his ability to progress other laws increased. "I've fully recovered. I need to focus on my Essence Path...if I can reach the Heavenly Genesis Realm…"
Just as he was deliberating on his cultivation path, the saber door flickered with an intense light. From it, a female figure appeared. She had long, silky white hair that went to her feet, a white martial outfit that radiated tyrannical sharpness, and her white eyes showed profundity that seemed to radiate a piece of heaven.
Her chest area no longer had unreasonable tightness. With a proper outfit, it was perfectly held by a proper undergarment. Despite this, they were still as big as a grown man's head each. They stood proud and perky.
Tao's eyes opened and he looked towards this woman, but his eyes no longer revealed perversion. Instead, he had some form of unyielding resolve. His eyes flickered with dark-amber light and his gaze became filled with a tyrannical confidence.
Yan Zaizen has always been stronger than him, but that didn't mean he had to remain weak. One day, and there will be a time that this woman would no longer treat him like air. He would have clout and capabilities respected by all and not just have Yan Zaizen shield him.
The scene of distorted space and helplessness he felt, he realized that the young man from before was already equivalent to a god in comparison to himself.
Yan Zaizen noticed the shift in mentality, but he couldn't think why it was brought forward. Perhaps it wasn't just a single thing but everything that has happened till now? Perhaps he always felt this way but it just revealed itself now?
Lang Xue glanced at Tao but only snorted. His gaze was rather presumptuous, she didn't like it. Her aura erupted in response. Her conceptual law — Silver Dusk of the Saber — radiated an essence of domineering ruthlessness and oppression that pressed forward to suppress all.
Tao felt pressure on his body and couldn't help but feel like he was before the heavens. His eyes became even more unyielding.
"Second-floor?" Yan Zaizen's brows perked. It seems this girl had used the resources she obtained in the inheritance deposit to enhance her cultivation. Lang Xue waved her hand, sending a spatial ring towards Yan Zaizen.
With a wave of his hand, the spatial ring entered his hand. Swiftly sweeping the contents, he didn't feel that happy. In comparison, this was small to his gains from the Deluge Realm. He just nodded. He knew that there wouldn't be a Regalia of the Heavens, so he wasn't disappointed.
"We're leaving.' Yan Zaizen walked towards the helm of the realmship. It was about time they left. Elysian Realm was only a month or so away.
"Wait!" Lang Xue jumped towards the realmship. She landed on the deck. Yan Zaizen shot her a cold glare which caused her steps to instantly halt. She felt aggrieved, what did she do to deserve such indifference? She was beautiful and she handed him the treasure as she promised.
Any cultivator, even Yu Shi, would desire her or show some decency to impress her. Yet, this guy was cruel.
"Leave." After saying that, Yan Zaizen grabbed the helm.
"Wait! Can you send me back home? I'll pay." She asked, her tone was soft and held a hint of begging. Any normal man may immediately collapse, but Yan Zaizen directly ignored her.
If Lang Xue hadn't treated Tao like air, hadn't held other thoughts during their negotiation, perhaps he would be more kind and forthcoming. However, he truly didn't care about her.
Tao saw this and realized why Yan Zaizen was acting this way. He looked towards Lang Xue and thought for a second, "Brother Zai, we should agree." Tao's words shocked not only Yan Zaizen but Lang Xue.
For Lang Xue, it was calling Yan Zaizen brother. Not senior brother, junior brother, number plus brother, or master, but brother. Her eyes flickered with suspicions.
Yan Zaizen was shocked that Tao wanted to let her ride. At first, he was about to joke about his perversion and send her packing, but he discovered that Tao's eyes were filled with resolve. This was the first time he saw Tao like this. His brows furrowed in thought. This resolve didn't originate from his dao.
Could it be Tao's competitiveness?
He softly sighed. "Where?"
Lang Xue's shock piled at the moment and she couldn't help but look at Tao once more. "Who was this person?" She couldn't help but think. Despite her shock, she replied swiftly, "Sirius Titan Realm. It's incredibly far from here. If I used a normal skyship, it could take me tens of thousands of years. However, with the realmship, it could only take a few decades."
Yan Zaizen couldn't help but be shocked. How the hell did she arrive here? Did she travel for thousands of years?
Noticing his thoughts, she explained, "I used a spatial platform nearby, took me three centuries of travel time to arrive at a nearby realm and three centuries to travel here." As a Heavenly Genesis expert, what was six hundred years to her?
Tao mind rumbled. When she started to travel, he was likely at the Qi Unification Realm. Holy...he wondered about her true age. When his thoughts drifted to this, his mind couldn't help but go blank.
Yan Zaizen felt even odder. He wasn't even born. His parents weren't born. Hell, his grandfather was likely an infant or not even born. Even though he stayed in chaotic space of fifteen hundred years, this wasn't real time.
"You're going to have to wait. Elysian Realm is nearby, I'll be going there first. Then, after, I'll take you there." Yan Zaizen thought for a second and decided. Elysian Realm had a location where one could communicate with the dead. Even if it was only a loose rumor, he had to verify the possibility with his own eyes.
If he could see his mother and father once more, it would be worth it.
Lang Xue heard about Elysian Realm's uniqueness. It was spread that talking to the dead was a possibility, but one had to pay a certain price. It seemed the realm itself had a connection with Hell, the hub of all souls. Seeing Yan Zaizen declare his intent to travel there, she thought for a second and agreed. To her, the Elysian Realm was also a location she wished to visit if possible. Even if speaking to the dead was highly unlikely, but if it's so widespread, it must have some truth to it, right?