Consuming Earths, Devouring Skies

Presba was a country that had existed for tens of thousands of years, yet despite that length a few things had remained constant. The Great Five Sects had remained in existence as a concept since the beginning of the country's founding. While their names and founders may have changed, their numbers had never dwindled or increased. 

If a sect fell, another one was readily available to replace it. This peculiar phenomena had always been observed as mystical, maybe even tied to the overall destiny of the ruling Imperial Clan. 

The current Five Great Sects were the Soaring Sword Sect, Golden Lion Sect, Demonic Fiend Sect, Yin Mystic Sect, and the Blood Sect. These five sects held the highest authority and strengths outside of the Imperial Clan. Of course, there were dozens of grand-tier sects and clans that had Half-step True Essence Realm or True Essence Realm experts at their forefront.

Yawning within the Soaring Sword Sect's skyship, Yan Zaizen leaned lazily on the headboard of his bed. The snow-white puppy was asleep on his thighs, with steady breathing and a peaceful aura. The journey to the Soaring Sword Sect took several days, and these days were mostly boring, to him.

The actuality of the matter was they had met some wandering expert who had arrived while facing a beast that nearly toppled the entire skyship. Fortunately, with the defensive formations, they were barely protected while the expert clashed fiercely. In the end, it was revealed the expert was a member of the Soaring Sword Sect, a Grand Elder, and he caught sight of Long Bailin.

It seemed his fortune was quite great as the expert swiftly grabbed Long Bailin and decided to take him as his disciple, traveling ahead of the skyship. This sequence of events mattered very little to Yan Zaizen and seemed to be a morbid development to maintain Long Bailin's threat status for Long Wulin.

Now, Long Bailin was no longer inferior to Long Wulin in status due to him completing an inferior trial, becoming an Outer Disciple while Long Wulin became an Inner Disciple.

"Meh, he was only at the mid-Origin Core Realm," was Yan Zaizen's only response. While that realm was considerably high in overall terms of strength within Presba, it was incredibly pathetic in his eyes. As an expert who had traveled the various expanses of these Thirty-Three Heavens, fought against and killed literal gods, and grasped Heavenly Laws, everything felt beneath him.

Even now, while he was merely at the Initial Success Stage of the Nascent Herculean Physique, he had means and methods of slaughtering a mid-Origin Core Realm expert instantly. 

The commotion, however, had inspired Old Man Bo, who gawked and squealed at seeing a legitimate expert. It was quite interesting seeing a middle-aged man display mannerisms befitting an amazed child. Yan Zaizen didn't blame him for this.

He only told Old Man Bo that he'll reach that realm within a short period of time. In fact, if Yan Zaizen wanted, he could use his Heavenly Dao Seed and bestow a strand of it to Old Man Bo to accelerate his cultivation base. However, he didn't know how the Heavenly Will refined within it would react to Old Man Bo, so he didn't dare take the risk carelessly.

While he didn't have much now, the moment his soul cultivation recovered, his access to his Sense Ring would give him access to all sorts of random things. A single drop of whatever casually placed thing within could allow anyone to become an expert that could kill True Essence Realm cultivators.

He hadn't even cleaned up the Oneuli Empire Prince's things yet, so for a royal member who had a Heavenly Creation Realm father as his backing, one can only imagine the wealth and resources stored within. It truly was a treasure trove.

Unfortunately, even now, his Soul Cultivation had yet to make even an inch of recovery. He found this odd as the aura of his Paragon Soul Realm cultivation base was clearly prevalent and existed. In fact, this problem was actually typical.

In the cultivation world, out of all the paths, Soul Energy was the most difficult form of energy to recover. He had never once been affected by this detriment because of the Black Hole and its ability to absorb and refine an exploding realm in less than a literal second. With it and his boundless resources obtained by random plunder, he had never been graced with this difficulty before.

Furthermore, if he ran low on soul energy, he had Heavenly Might and his physical body to rely on. It was truly a predicament of too well-off to know one's weakness. 

"We're here!" A voice filled with stately tone resounded throughout every facet of the skyship, alerting all those present.

After the days finally passed, they arrived in the Soaring Sword Sect's domain, the Solitary Sword Mountain. 

It was a sole mountain shaped like a sharp sword, piercing into the clouds and above. It was majestic and radiated a profound sword aura reminiscent to the Mortal Law of the Sword. Yan Zaizen saw this mountain and his eyes flashed with a shocked light.

This was the former base of operations for the Solitary Sword Mountain!

"It seems my former musings that the Solitary Sword Sect had connections with this one was absolutely true!" After thousands of years, things changed but sometimes places remained the same. This Solitary Sword Mountain was one of those places, and while Yan Zaizen had never witnessed it in person before, he had heard many, many stories about it.

Supposedly, this mountain was a literal sword of a Heavenly Immortal. Heavenly Immortal was just a juvenile name for Heavenly Cultivators, particularly those in the Xiantu Realm who've touched upon the Heavenly Genesis Realm. This expert had crafted and refined this mountain, used it to slaughter his enemies, forming rivers of blood and corpses, before he set it here.

There were a few more legends, but Yan Zaizen felt this one was the correct one. His keen eyes had long since noticed the faint heavenly energy radiating off the sword. It would make this mountain a great cultivation location for any expert, especially for those who've comprehended the Mortal Law of the Sword.

He lifted the snow-white puppy into his arms before walking out and onto the deck. Old Man Bo and many others were already there, their eyes wide with reverence as they pointed and talked heatedly about the Solitary Sword Mountain and its supposed legends.

"Little Bra-I mean, I…" Old Man Bo had nearly instinctively called Yan Zaizen by his previous address, making it a little awkward. However, when he tried to call him by a proper name, only now did he realize he didn't know Yan Zaizen's actual name.

Yan Zaizen chuckled at his odd expression as he calmly said, "You can call me Yan Zaizen, or Master Zai." However, the moment he said those words, the Solitary Sword Sect's elder at the helm stilled.

Yan?

He turned towards Yan Zaizen and his eyes radiated a sharp intent. This intent was clearly noticed by Yan Zaizen, who turned his amber-gold gaze to meet the elder's. He felt the intent radiating off his eyes. It was deadly and filled with ill-intent.

Oh?

His brows raised with shock. The elder turned his gaze away and looked towards the mountain. He was quiet and remained such.

Yan Zaizen smiled. Others might calmly take this intent and simply be wary of the elder, but Yan Zaizen wasn't someone who had a wait and see type of personality. Before Old Man Bo could even address him properly, he vanished before his eyes.

In a second, he stood to the elder's right.

"You reacted quite oddly to my name. So, you can choose: You can tell me why or I can cripple you." His words were calm and nonchalant, yet the inherent tone was domineering to the extreme.

The elder started. However, shockingly, he didn't even consider things as he made his palm into a blade and threw it ruthlessly at Yan Zaizen's neck, clearly displaying his mid-Qi Unification Realm cultivation base. The swirling qi was sharp, filled with sword law. He was definitely not a normal cultivator.

Yan Zaizen remained casual as he took a step back, dodging the bladed hand by a millimeter, yet it never touched his skin. With a lift of his leg, he struck towards his dantian. This time, his power was controlled. 

Bam!

A rupturing sound occurred, followed by a hoarse exclaim similar to wheezing as the elder found his qi system had been thoroughly destroyed with but a kick. He kneeled in agony, the pain forcing his body to fold inwards and his eyes to bulge.

The exchange and occurrence was so fast that many couldn't even react. Before they knew it, the elder with a cultivation base that could only look up to had been dealt with. Yan Zaizen casually hefted the snow-white puppy in his arms to his face. It rubbed its fur onto his chin and sent a look of innocent pity towards the old elder. As if saying: "You choose this."

Yan Zaizen didn't delay in his words, "It seems my name made you quite hostile." He didn't know why, but it fascinated him. As for the trouble, did he need to care about trouble?

The skyship, now without a pilot, started to waver in the sky. "Someone should pilot this thing before you all die in a blazing crash," was all Yan Zaizen said as he casually grabbed the elder by the neck like a dog and dragged his trembling body towards the ship's hall. 

The amount of gaped expressions, bulging eyes, and uncomprehending emotions in people's hearts were everywhere!