by KSY
The ones with a Cultivation Level below Late Mortal Emperor Realm were clearly told that they couldn’t even take the test, as there was no hope of them defeating ten Early Mortal Sage Realm Beasts. Many of them were angry about such a dictate being issued by the Elders of their respective family clans, as there was still a slight chance that they could gain a heaven-defying opportunity inside the Ancient Legacy Land. They were OK about endangering their lives for it – in their eyes, taking the risk was better than remaining normal for the rest of their lives.
Soon more news spread in both family clans. It was about Sheldon and his companions giving Ryan special permission to enter the Ancient Legacy Land even with his Mortal Lord Realm Cultivation Level. This immediately aroused the anger of many of the youngsters who wanted to enter the Ancient Legacy Land but were unable to do so given Sheldon and company’s dictate. They found it extremely unfair. Many of them went to complain to the Elders of their respective branches, but quickly shut their mouths when they heard about Thorn from their Elders.
The Branch Elders told their respective youngsters the things that Oscar had previously told the higher-ups of both family clans regarding Thorn. The things that Oscar had told the higher-ups were the things that Ryan had told him. Ryan had hidden a lot from Oscar about the real capabilities of Thorn, but the things he had said were enough to make Oscar and the higher-ups of both family clans shake with joy. The things that shocked the youngsters the most was Thorn’s age and his Cultivation Level. It made them assume that Thorn possessed High-grade bloodline purity just like everyone else. They knew that Ryan’s chances of safely coming out of the Legacy Land were higher than those with a Mortal Sage Realm Cultivation Level, since Thorn would be by his side.
Since ancient times, the top geniuses that shook Grandura with their talent didn’t have a Cultivation Level above Mortal Sage Realm while they were still less than thirty years of age, so they knew that Thorn’s Mortal Saint Realm Cultivation Level was sufficient to keep Ryan safe from the youngsters of other factions, though there was no guarantee that he would be able to keep Ryan safe from the other dangers inside the Ancient Legacy Land.
The youngsters couldn’t help but feel envious of Ryan. It was good that they didn’t know that Thorn was a Late Immortal Saint Realm Elemental Beast while being only a year old, otherwise they would definitely have vomited blood.
Thorn wasn’t the only reason Ryan was given special permission by Sheldon and his companions – he was just one of the reasons. The other was Lachesis but information about Lachesis wasn’t made public, because of the trouble that it might bring to both family clans. Sheldon had previously tested the combat prowess of Lachesis and found that she had the ability to fight with Early Mortal Saint Realm beings on a par with her Early Mortal Emperor Realm Cultivation Level. This made her another trump-card for Ryan. Sheldon and his companions still had no idea about Enkil. Otherwise, they would have thought of him as one of Ryan’s trump-cards too.
Ryan had kept Enkil a secret from everyone and he wished to keep it that way for a very long time. The presence of Enkil, a little Winged Dragon Scorpion on Grandura was extremely odd. It was impossible for an egg of a Winged Dragon Scorpion to hatch on Grandura, even if it was transformed into an Evil Fire Spirit, as even then it would require Death Elemental Energy or Fire Elemental Energy of the highest purity.
Sheldon and his companions would definitely ask him all sorts of questions. Ryan didn’t mind telling Sheldon and his companions about the extremely pure Death Elemental Energy produced by Death Sword as he had full faith in them, but Death Sword had specifically asked him to keep quiet about it. The reason for that was quite simple. If anyone with whom Ryan had shared the secret of Death Sword was caught by an enemy and had his or her memories read, then within no time a calamity would be come knocking on the gates of his family clans. The preciousness of Heavenly Death Pearl was unimaginable. When Ryan had transformed Enkil into an Evil Fire Spirit he knew that there was a chance that Solomon would come to know about him and Ryan was OK with that. He got a feeling of invincibility from Solomon when he’d met him, due to which he wasn’t bothered about him ever getting caught by someone and having his memories read.
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A number of days passed after Ryan entered the Sword Tower and his training went quite well. He had a feeling, that at his current speed he could completely comprehend the First realm of Sword-intent in the next few weeks.
Ryan was currently practicing the Third slash of the Heaven Sundering Sword Martial Skill: One slash turns into hundred slashes. In this slash, a single sword beam turns into a hundred sword beams which can be controlled by the Martial Artist using his or her will. Each of the hundred sword beams possesses a fifth of the power of the single sword beam from which they originate, so it is meant for dealing with a large number of enemies that are weaker than the user.
There was a big metallic disc embedded in one of the walls of the Cultivation chamber. Ryan was using that as the target for practicing the Third slash. He slashed one sword beam after another. They would all split into seventy or eighty beams instead of the desired one hundred beams. Clearly, Ryan was still quite a bit from mastering the Third slash. Ryan stopped though, when he received a series of Mental-message transmissions from Isa which made his expression turn gloomy.
“Isa are you certain about this?” Ryan asked in shock via Mental-message transmission.
“Yes Master. There is no doubt about it,” Isa’s tone was equally shocked when he replied. He was really worried about Ryan’s safety, even though he knew that it wouldn’t be easy for anyone to kill Ryan.
“Thanks for the information Isa. I will contact you if I need your help,” Ryan said as he ended the conversation.
“It seems that the object that came from Outer space is so precious that even the Main branch of the Calamity Sect is interested enough to send a few youngsters to specially retrieve it!” Yama said in a concerned manner, as he could tell that the dangers inside the Ancient Legacy Land would undoubtedly increase manyfold.
Isa had been previously tasked by Ryan to find the person in the Calamity Sect that had Undying Fire Beast Martial Spirit just like Shana, and he’d been unsuccessful, but he had unearthed a great conspiracy by Calamity Sect.
Generally, no faction in the Divine Universe ever sends its youngsters to a lower world unless its existence is threatened, since those youngsters can’t leave that world until they reach the Cultivation Level required in that lower world to ascend to the Divine Universe.
In order for beings to ascend to the Divine Universe from Grandura, for example, they must first reach Late Immortal Saint Realm and then they have to condense some Celestial runes before they can leave the confines of the atmosphere of Grandura. It can take tens of thousands to millions of years depending on the individual, as condensing Celestial runes on Grandura isn’t an easy task. Sending youngsters from the Divine Universe to Grandura is tantamount to playing with their futures, as the opportunities on Grandura pale in comparison with the ones in the Divine Universe. This showed the preciousness of the object from Outer space.
The thing that alarmed Ryan and his Martial Spirits the most was the Cultivation Levels of those youngsters. According to Isa, all of them had quite terrifying Cultivation Levels. A few amongst them were already in the early stages of the Immortal Realm. This fact had shaken Ryan up a little bit, as he was far from being a match of an Immortal Realm Martial Artist on his own, though he could use other means like his Undead creatures and Thorn to fight them, but it would be extremely odd if they didn’t have similar means, seeing as they were from the Main branch of the Calamity Sect and had such high Cultivation Levels.
The speed at which Martial Artists can cultivate in the Divine Universe easily outstrips the speed in the Mortal Universe. This makes it easy for Martial Artists to become Immortal Realm Martial Artists in the Divine Universe, while they are still a few hundred year
s old, even if they have mediocre talent, as the quality of Elemental Energy they can access as well as the Heavenly Treasures that they can gain is not something the youngsters from lower worlds can compete with.
The other thing that was bothering Ryan was the fact that the rules of the Legacy Land didn’t restrict the level of charms or the level of the artifacts that the youngsters entering it could carry along with them. Understandably, that made Ryan uneasy. If it had only been youngsters from Grandura, all that would not have mattered, as he could have easily dealt with them even if they were to bring High-grade Immortal Artifacts along with them and charms that had the attack of a Late Immortal Saint Realm Martial Artist sealed in them, but that was not the case with youngsters from the Main branch of the Calamity Sect. They might have artifacts meant for Gods and Celestials and charms that could even endanger the life of a God. Though such artifacts and charms lose their original might on Grandura, they could still easily threaten the life of any actual Late Immortal Saint Realm being with extreme ease. Ryan was sure that they would have a lot of dangerous stuff on them.
“So … how should we proceed?” Ryan asked his Martial Spirits in a somewhat helpless manner. At that moment he was thinking of backing off from exploring the Ancient Legacy Land and also stopping his family clans from sending Martial Artists from the younger generation to explore it. He had no intention of unnecessarily risking his own life or letting his fellow clan members risk their lives. He could kill Rai at some later date.
“Ask Isa to keep an eye on those youngsters from the Main branch of the Calamity Sect and try to find a little bit more about the object that has come from Outer space. We can decide our future course of action based on that,” Yama said in a calm manner. Ryan, Dargar and Earl couldn’t help but agree with his suggestion.
“Isa, can you try to find more information about the object that has come from Outer space?” Ryan immediately asked via Mental-message transmission.
“I am already on it, Master,” Isa replied.
“Thanks, and sorry to trouble you during your critical time,” Ryan said. Guilt made his heart a little heavy.
“Master, there’s no need to worry about my Cultivation! It is progressing well, and I will step into Celestial Realm within the next few days. Most of the time I am cultivating, as the information is being collected by the Calamity Sect disciples under my control,” Isa said via Mental-message transmission happily, which stunned Ryan and his Martial Spirits.
“Isa, can you be a little clearer?” Ryan asked via Mental-message transmission as he was unable to understand this.
“Master, I possess an Innate Ability that allows me turn other living beings into my loyal followers provided their Cultivation Level is below mine by an entire realm. They are no different from puppets and will do anything that I command them. The chances of anyone finding about this are also extremely low. As a result, I’ve been able to turn quite a number of Mortal Realm disciples from the Calamity Sect into my loyal followers. Some of these disciples have been asked to serve those youngsters from the Main branch of Calamity. The information that I gave you earlier was also collected by them,” Isa said via Mental-message transmission with a hysterical laugh, which made Ryan remember that Isa was actually a demon and his way of doing things was bound to be nefarious in every sense. The fact that Isa was using the disciples of Calamity Sect as disposable assets didn’t bother him at all, but his guilt related to Isa reduced significantly as a result.
“Keep up the good work and inform me immediately if you are able to find something important,” Ryan said via Mental-message transmission in an encouraging tone.
“Yes Master,” Isa replied with enthusiasm as the conversation between them ended.
“We can only wait for Isa to send some good news. In the meantime, I will try to increase my strength,” Ryan said in a flat manner.
“I think it is time for you to use Devil’s Enlightenment to its full potential,” Yama urged Ryan. Earl and Dargar couldn’t help but agree with him.
“I will have to go to some other forest if I wish to use Devil’s Enlightenment,” Ryan said in a gloomy manner, as he knew that his mother wouldn’t allow him to leave the limits of the Heaven Sundering Family Clan that easily during the current turbulent times. He couldn’t kill living beings in Heavenly Forest, because that was one of locations meant for war-drills for the upcoming war with Star Alliance. Ryan and everyone else not taking part in the drills were strictly forbidden from entering Heavenly Forest for the next few months. A great many traps and other defensive measures would be placed in Heavenly Forest in the coming months, so Ryan had no choice but to go to some other forest to burn Elemental Beasts and other creatures to death.
“If the object from Outer space does turn out to be a life-changing opportunity or some sort of powerful Heavenly Treasure, then we will have no choice but to enter the Ancient Legacy Land for it. We couldn’t let that fall into the hands of the Calamity Sect, since you wish to annihilate them in the future. If such a thing was to fall into their hands, it would only increase our difficulties in the future. We might even lose our lives,” Yama said, still shocked.
Ryan couldn’t help but agree with Yama and nodded his head as he exited the Cultivation chamber allotted to him in the Sword Tower. He knew that as long as he burned living beings to death, his insights and understanding in Death Elemental Laws and Fire Elemental Laws would continue to increase at a terrifying pace as long as those beings had the same Cultivation Level as him or higher.
Ryan exited the Cultivation chamber and headed to the Reception.
“Grandma, I will be heading home. Thank you for letting me use the Cultivation chamber,” Ryan said to the middle-aged woman at the counter as he gave her gentle bow.
“Why did you exit so early? Your grandmother told me that you will comprehend Sword-intent for a month or so,” the middle-aged woman asked. She was certain that it would have been impossible for Ryan to comprehend First realm of Sword-intent in such a short time, even if he was a heaven-defying genius.
“I think I have hit a bottle-neck. I am unable to comprehend Sword-intent any further,” Ryan lied with a straight face. The middle-aged woman nodded her head as she couldn’t find fault with Ryan’s excuse. It was normal for Martial Artists to hit bottle-necks in their Martial path, even if they were geniuses.
Ryan then bid her goodbye and exited the Sword Tower. He was instantaneously covered in white light by the same middle-aged man as before to protect him from the oppressive aura of the Sword Tower. Ryan immediately took off into the sky and turned in the direction of the middle-aged man and gently bowed. The middle-aged man just nodded his head in acknowledgement, following which Ryan headed straight towards his home.
Ch.2
Ryan’s Spatial pouch that was tied to his waist started to vibrate on his way to home. He took out his Mental-message transmission orb and switched it on.
“Ryan, we have collected all the information that you need,” Emerson’s voice rang in Ryan’s mind the moment he switched it on, following which a large amount of information appeared in his mind. A smile appeared on Ryan’s face. The information was about the Dark Moon Family Clan and it ranged from their recent activities to the location of their Treasure Lands. Emerson had also sent information about a few Heavenly Treasures that had been birthed by their Treasure Lands, which they’d left there so their grades would increase.
Most factions don’t harvest Heavenly Treasures that are birthed by the Treasure Lands under their control right after they are born. Instead they let their grades increase which happens naturally as they absorb more and more Elemental Energy with the passage of time. The factions make sure that the identity of the Heavenly Treasures that they’ve left in their Treasure Lands are never leaked, as this would arouse ill-intentions in the minds of their enemies.
Raymond and Emerson had had to pay a very heavy price just to get the information about those few Heavenly Treasures in the Dark Moon Family
Clan’s Treasure Lands. They’d purchased it from a bandit group called the Righteous Bandit Group. These bandits were known for doing anything and everything that couldn’t be called righteous – except that they didn’t target weak factions or anyone weaker than themselves. The Righteous Bandit Group was well-known for robbing the Treasure Lands of powerful factions. The actual number of members in this bandit group was unknown. Their hideout, on the other hand, was commonly known to all the factions of Grandura, but no one dared to attack it.
The Righteous Bandit Group was originally a faction in the Divine Universe, that had created numerous branches on thousands of higher worlds across the Mortal Universe including Grandura. It is an SS Grade faction and its branches appear mysteriously without local factions knowing about them, until it is too late to do anything. Their many branches on higher worlds make sure that their Main branch is never short of manpower.
At any given time, the Main branch of the Righteous Bandit Group is always at war with one faction or another , so it loses a substantial number of members every day. However, a regular influx of new members from its thousands of branches on different higher worlds across the Mortal Universe makes sure that it is never short of manpower.
The Main branch of the Righteous Bandit Group treats the numerous branches on the different higher worlds as training centres. On all the higher worlds where it has branches, it declares that it doesn’t mind if its members are killed while robbing any faction’s Treasure Lands – but that is not the case, if a faction dares to attack its branch hideouts. This warning makes sure that no faction on Grandura dares to attack the hideout of the Grandura branch of the Righteous Bandit Group to eradicate it once and for all – including the factions with established branches in the Divine Universe.