Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

"..." The vast nothingness carried a dense aura of killing intent, the words from Ezekiel's condition emanated a powerful force similar to an Imperial Decree.

Yan Zaizen felt his mind tremble as a world permeating with blood and death abruptly surfaced within his field of vision. It was faintly illusory but felt remarkably real.

Ezekiel's beautifully silver eyes radiated a chilling light. This light seemed to contain untold grievances and hatred. It was indescribable.

However, those eyes weren't unfamiliar to him. Those eyes were his on more than one occasion. When he saw Wu Yuanxu die, forced to enter chaotic space, and left to die with no visible way to escape. The thought of the Xuanwu City Lord was embedded deep into his heart.

Then, Lady Diyi. She had sent him to die as a slave in a dark hole as a nobody over something completely out of his control. As his awareness grew of his fate, so did his hatred.

He rubbed the compass in his hand with his thumb. It felt smooth and radiated profound secrets. However, he didn't hesitate. With a toss, he sent it to Ezekiel.

"I agree to your condition. Not only because of my own desire to return home, but because I owe you." His words were softly spoken but contained a powerful reverberation.

Ezekiel caught the compass, his eyes flickering with complex emotions. The clearest one being sorrow and regret. He looked at Yan Zaizen for a long while.

The last words Yan Zaizen spoke was said sincerely with earnest. If Ezekiel hadn't appeared in his life, his current life wouldn't exist. Disregarding Ezekiel's ill-intentions, Yan Zaizen did owe him for everything he had. If he could, he would like to close off this karma.

Ezekiel seemed to understand. Yan Zaizen cultivated his herculean method, had the life and death regalia, and a vast amount of resources that would make lower-tier heavenly tier forces war to the last, it was only natural that Yan Zaizen felt some sense of thanks.

He slightly nodded in return. Yan Zaizen may not know it, but being devoured offered an extraordinary benefit to his cultivation and personal insights, especially towards the soul. Therefore, he felt a tinge of gratitude. Only a tinge.

"Ready yourself," keeping his blade, he held the compass. His body quaked visibly, a wisp of silver light emerged from his glabella and entered the compass. The compass that had six directional arrows suddenly glowed with resplendent light. This light felt like space itself was being pushed away and contorted.

A directional arrow, the missing double-headed arrow, manifested from this wisp. No longer did the compass seem as if it was missing two directions, completely pointing towards the eight directions.

Yan Zaizen's eyes shined with interest. He kept Sky Shatter and observed. "It seems the functionality of the compass was incomplete…" Yan Zaizen calmly speculated. Ezekiel likely contained the method to utilize the compass in full, but others would likely be unable to do so.

In hindsight, he was thankful that he didn't use the compass. The uncomfortable feeling in his heart whenever an opportunity presented itself, like in the sub-realm collapse event, was rightfully followed. It's likely that the missing arrow could've led to countless complications.

The compass flickered with silver light effusing extraordinary spatial laws. An image shone outwards, within this projection was three orbs. When Yan Zaizen saw these three orbs, his brows furrowed. These orbs were like planets, but they were stacked on top of each other like blocks to a pillar.

"The three heavens are partial Earths, constructed and stabilized by a profound formation. Thirty-Three Heavens, Heavenly Pillars, Heavenly Clusters, Central Heaven, and Central Hell. This is our world." Ezekiel explained, his gaze profound and soft. It was as if he was explaining the ocean, the seas, and the mountains.

"The Eleven Pillars connects the thirty-three heavens as one, each composed of three heavens called Heavenly Clusters. The 7th Heaven, 17th Heaven, and 27th Heaven comprise the 7th Cluster, known as the Lucky Link Cluster. The Central Heaven is the core area, the source of the thirty-three heavens, while the Central Hell…" Ezekiel paused slightly, but even though it seemed he wished to continue, he didn't.

Feeling his horizons deeply broadened, Yan Zaizen inspected the projection closely. A dark-grey dot appeared at the lower orb. This dark-grey dot flickered as if it was constantly refreshing. "Us?"

"Yes." Ezekiel answered. He spoke a few mystic words and the world of nothingness vanished temporary and replaced with a distorted world. This distorted world made Yan Zaizen unable to determine up from down, left from right, front from his back, and even his senses felt unreliable.

This feeling lasted a second before it vanished. When it did, Ezekiel had already kept the compass, his silver eyes were trained on Yan Zaizen's form and reaction. He gave a soft nod, looking elsewhere and stepped forward. "Let's go," he charged towards a direction that Yan Zaizen couldn't determine if it was up, but it felt like it.

Yan Zaizen followed along without hesitation. His eyes were calm but his heart was filled with amazement. The heavens were like planets stacked onto eachother. He realized that Xiha had to send him through the 17th Heaven and into the 7th Heaven! No wonder it took three hundred and thirty-three thousand years to recharge such a formation.

After all, the heavens was absolutely massive. No, that was an understatement. If a small realm was a pebble, then a heaven was a mountain. It was far too great to be called massive. This was only considering a single heaven, let alone a cluster.

They traveled for a long time. In fact, they traveled for five years nearly non-stop. Luckily, Yan Zaizen had resources to replenish his energies to keep up flight. Ezekiel was the same, his energy reserves was not enough the last the entire trip. If this world contained heavenly laws or essence, it would be far easier.

They stopped to recover, sitting in the lotus position while facing each other with a short distance of two meters between them. During this five years, they hadn't exchanged a single word. Only after this time, while they were recovering their energy, did Ezekiel break this years-long silence. "We will be going to the 17th Heaven. After, when I'm finished with what I need to do, then I'll send you to the 27th Heaven."

"..." Yan Zaizen didn't respond, only nodding in understanding. From the projection, the 17th Heaven was something they had to cross regardless, so he didn't care. As for completing this task, that was the deal anyhow. He had no objections.

He only further reinforced his soul energy that encapsulated Pinaka softly, protecting her from any unknown danger he may come across. His eyes were gentle and filled with warmth.

He had many questions as to what the Vast Expanse was, why Pinaka was in her current state due to it, and more.

He had so, so many questions.

Looking at Ezekiel, his eyes flickered with a swift light.

"Who is it you want to kill?" His words were a bit heavy. He had killed many times before, but this would be the first time he helped kill someone directly and with a ignorance of their crime. He felt an odd feeling swell in his heart.

"..." Ezekiel's eyes turned incomparably sharp, the intent within was so deadly that Yan Zaizen's black lungs twitched. It was as if it knew that this person would feed it deathly aura one day. It was a shocking response.

"Those that need to be killed." His voice was low but heavy and powerful. This was the answer he gave before, but it didn't answer his question. However, he could tell there was a story to it. After all, Ezekiel fiercely hated them but to him, the one who devoured a portion of his soul, he had none.

However, before he could say another word, Ezekiel muttered softly to the point it was incomprehensible, but Yan Zaizen could feel the purity of this hatred.

"Ariel!"