SEVEN REALMS

QI REFINING, FOUNDATION ESTABLISHING

When the Constellations were erased from the world and the result of this alteration to the fabric of reality caused an instability of unprecedented size, he considered being stranded in the darkness between worlds to be a very fortunate outcome. Any other alternative would have posed a problem to his continued existence.
It was impossible to orientate himself in the endless void, where space and time had no meaning, so instead he retreated inside of his mind and weaved a spell that would allow him to return to Earth, or at the very least Althea. Light engulfed him, that seemingly blinding light following the infinite expanse of darkness, but he could feel merely with his aura alone that the spell had transported him to neither Earth nor Althea. The thought that he had been transported back to the final tower crossed his mind and was discarded just as quickly, since this world felt unlike anything he had experienced before. When his sight returned to him, he saw misty green peaks and shimmering lakes stretching far into the horizon, the natural landscape dotted with buildings of every size nestled between the mountaintops and the valleys. Unlike the classical and medieval European architecture of Althea, they were undoubtedly Chinese, or at least whatever passed as its equivalent here. The prospect of yet another world to lay claim to interested him greatly, but there were more pressing matters at hand. It would be easier to travel to his desired destination with this world as an anchor, so he once again channeled his endless magical power — but it did not succeed. Instead, a furious storm appeared at his exact location the instant he called forth his magic, the clouds turning a pitch black before his eyes, and as thunder rumbled violently, a white-gold bolt of lightning shot out and struck him with great intensity.Such a thing should have been absolutely nothing to him, but the bolt was filled with a power he could not comprehend, and he felt as if even his soul was being scorched down to nothing. The searing pain lasted for only a moment, and then the clouds withdrew. The lightning had somehow disrupted the magical energy maintaining his flight spell, causing him to fall down towards the ground. He rose from the crater that resulted from his fall with an expression of displeasure upon his face, willing the flight spell to take effect again, but there was no result. He attempted to gather his magical energy, but could feel nothing. Recalling his return to earth and System sealing away his magics, he could not help but feel that history was repeating itself. Perhaps nature itself was hindering his efforts. Unlike that time, he had seemingly been completely cut off from his power, and only the physical strength from his training in Althea remained. He confirmed it by picking up a tree that had fallen during his crash landing and tossing it far from sight. With little else he could do, Arsaces travelled on foot to the nearest village he had seen from above.To enter this world at such a disadvantage vexed him, but he wasn't one to lament unfortunate circumstances for long. Rather his mind had already turned to how he could twist this situation to his benefit, and the beginnings of a plan formed in his mind as he passed through the village. It was certainly rural, but the size of it was unusual, far larger than any settlement of its kind in Althea. The villagers eyed him with suspicion; he was, after all, clearly a foreigner. He was sure that any individual of lesser experience in the subtleties of social manipulation would view his current predicament as a major roadblock, to be stranded in an unknown place and at a complete disadvantage in terms of information, but in spite of their natural distrust and insistence on being paid for the merest scrap of knowledge he had managed to learn all that he wished without exchanging it for a single thing. He guided the conversation towards the desired direction and allowed them to speak on the exact matters he wished to hear, and politely took his leave before the day passed.He now knew that he was in the Sky Ox Kingdom of the Green River Continent, which was itself located in the Mortal Realm. The city itself was a rather poor and backwater place in spite of its size, under the jurisdiction of an organization called the Fire Sword Sect, some manner of religious warrior order. One of their members stopped him on the outskirts of the village, instantly derisive of this stranger they had found wandering through one of their territories, but he patiently explained the circumstances. When this swordsman drew their blade only to find it snapped in half and their body beaten to the ground a moment later, the Emperor was rather disappointed that his attempt at diplomacy had failed. He took the opportunity to more thoroughly interrogate the defeated man, who called himself a cultivator of the sword, and under subtle threat of further violence expounded on the title. Apparently the inhabitants of this world all possessed a set of spiritual organs akin to pores and blood vessels through which they could absorb and cycle the energy of the world, known more simply as qi. Through diligently training themselves in a certain method they could gain deeper insight into the nature of the world and use their internal energies to obtain supernatural abilities. The ultimate goal of these practices was immortality, but only legendary figures had reached such heights. Sword cultivators were martial users of qi who meditated on the nature and philosophy of swordsmanship to grow more powerful. When he asked on what authority they attacked him, the swordsman answered that in this uncivilized continent the only law was the law of the strong, and as an outer disciple of the sect they had the right to attack anyone they pleased as long as it did not weaken the sect as a whole. In fact, it was common for disciples to rob one another for valuable cultivation resources; those who lost were simply not worthy of them.Their honesty in defending such a blatantly dysfunctional system intrigued him greatly. It was the exact opposite of the sort of order he had endeavored to impose, but it was the perfect environment to grow in power and influence as quickly as possible. He left the beaten swordsman behind and travelled to the mountain with the intention of joining this so-called sword sect, adopting the name Xiong Yang. Though he was met with open disdain by the arrogant disciples who were in charge of handling those wishing to enter and leave the sect, they nonetheless could not deny his entry on baseless grounds and he was accepted as an outer disciple shortly after. Within a sect, the distinction between outer and inner disciples was severe — outer disciples were given a basic, low-grade scripture to meditate upon in their free time, but besides this they received no guidance from the elders of the sect and were forced to spend most of the day toiling in its service. To become an inner disciple and receive the full support of the sect, an outer disciple would have to reach the second stage of cultivation, Foundation Establishment. He was given a place to sleep and a scripture, the Three Fundamentals Scripture containing basic sword techniques and a simple explanation of taking in qi from one's surroundings through meditation. He was told, however, that one would not be able to even practice the scripture until they had partaken in a Root Awakening Ceremony. The quality of the ceremony would determine one's Spirit Root, the spiritual organ used to absorb qi, and outer disciples would have to pay for even the cheapest, most ineffective ceremony that had the chance to leave one's Spirit Root irreversibly damaged. To have higher chances of a better awakening, they would have to supply all of the immensely expensive materials themselves.He did performed his duties in the sect to advance his eventual goal, primarily being assigned to the most grueling and slave-like hard labour by the disdainful upper-level outer disciples, but he did not complain nor did he remain idle in what little free time he had. He extracted as much information as he could about the ceremony and the materials needed for a high-grade Spirit Root, also managing to find where many of the materials were found. The most important materials that could be found within the bounds of the Sky Ox Kingdom were a Crimson Flame Flower, a magical plant growing on the peaks of a mountain in the wilderness some two weeks of travel from the sect, and a Blood Ape Beast Core, the core of a species of monsters known as Blood Apes in which their qi power was concentrated. Their habitat was a valley near the mountain on which the sect was situated, but to face them without being of the Foundation Establishment level was considered a death sentence. Declaring that he would be postponing his duties for a time in order to track down both of these ingredients, a statement that was no doubt interpreted as a suicide note by the other members of the sect, he left the mountain and set off.The Blood Apes were not particularly fierce; they would have been a problem in Althea, but nothing that a group of trained knights would not be able to deal with. He had slain a great number with nothing more than his hands and feet shortly after entering the valley, and extracted their Beast Cores before setting off to find a Crimson Flame Flower. This required considerably more time and a lot of perilous climbing, impossible for an ordinary man, but his strength meant that it posed no problem. He handled the flower with care, since it could easily die and lower its grade in the process, and returned triumphantly to the sect, where he was met with disbelief. They begrudgingly accepted the ingredients he had gathered and used them in a high-grade Root Awakening Ceremony, ensuring there would be no problems in the early steps of cultivation; despite the simple premise of meditation and reflecting upon an aspect of the world, an incorrect start to one's cultivation could mean becoming crippled for life, losing one's life, or simply dying later down the line. The Crimson Flame Flower and Blood Ape Beast Core were themselves very dangerous as well, since their power meant one's Spirit Root could quickly grow imbalanced and collapse in on itself if the energy wasn't immediately handled properly. He brushed off any warnings, which they only gave out of proper conduct, and immediately upon the ceremony's completion he could feel its effects. It cut like a blade and blazed like an inferno, every vessel in his body being set aflame, but he did not falter and calmly cycled the qi through the entirety of his body. The ones who had performed the ceremony were astounded at his survival, and he simply said he must have been blessed by the heavens, but in truth controlling qi was incredibly similar to controlling magical energy. Even the overwhelming feeling of the root's awakening was nothing compared to what he had felt upon complete the ritual of the Well of Misery, over a hundred years ago now.His success did not go unnoticed, this unprecedented event involving a no-name disciple quickly attracting the attention of the outer and inner sect disciples alike. The greater part of them were mostly interested in the Beast Cores still in his possession, and he put many an aspiring robber in the dirt as a result. He only became more well-known when he did the same thing to an inner disciple of the Foundation Establishment realm, deftly dodging the strikes of their flying sword and leaving their head embedded in a pillar. Before long the elders had their eyes on him as well. He still performed his duties, and practiced the basic scripture he had been given day and night, but he frequently travelled to gather rare ingredients to be sold for resources and cultivation manuals that were more useful to him in his current level of progress. The sect not only had its own politics, but an internal economy as well. High-grade Spirit Root or not, these two areas were the ones he excelled at, and his time in the Fire Sword Sect were not at all dissimilar to when he climbed the ranks of the Gemini Conclave. His cultivation rose quickly relative to other outer disciples, but it was altogether a careful long-term process, his wealth and influence quickly outpacing the growth of his power. He took to this corrupt environment like a fish to water, those foolish enough to attempt to intimidate him soon carrying out his schemes instead.After a year of cultivating his inner self and contemplating the nature of the sword, he had broken through to the Foundation Establishment level. His will was undoubtedly an important factor in his swift success, as well as his excellent control over his qi, but the role of his vast amount of wealth could not be understated either. The elders had taken a great interest in his talent and taken in him as an inner sect disciple in spite of his terrible relations with the other members of the inner sect, whom he had humiliated by defeating them shortly after awakening his Spirit Root, or perhaps exactly because he had stayed true to the law of the strong. As he had expected, they attempted to use him in power plays against one another, but he navigated the paths of their schemes with little effort and ended up weakening all of their positions while successfully casting the blame onto their rivals. As inner disciples no longer had to carry out menial tasks, his mind was entirely focused on progressing through the stages of Foundation Establishment and breaking through to the Golden Core level through intense meditation and ever more intense study of sword philosophy. If he could form his Golden Core within such a short amount of time, his supremacy would be unquestionable, as the elders of the sect were of this level and had only reached it after a century of work. He would show them that they knew nothing of determination, at least not compared to him.

CRUCIBLE OF THE GOLDEN CORE

His cultivation continued to grow, and within the span of a year he was on the cusp of a breakthrough to the Golden Core realm. His machinations within the sect continued, with many disciples owing him fealty in one way or another, and the elders treated him favourably as a valuable genius of the sect despite his foreign origins. An important achievement for a sword cultivator was the comprehension of Sword Essence, the power comes from focusing one's qi to a cutting edge and giving shape to it outside the body. While his experience as a mage was greater, he knew enough of swordsmanship to reach a quick understanding of this power, and it was advanced for a cultivator of his realm. It had been tempered in battle against magical beasts and rival disciples until his mere dissatisfaction was enough to make one feel as if they were being cut by countless blades. He was practicing his techniques when the sect's defensive seals were activated, paper-like magical constructs flying through the air and all of the outer disciples rushing to safety in a panic. He stood on his flying sword and allowed it to carry him into the air, where he saw a dark figure wreaking havoc upon the village at the foot of the mountain. All of the elders and inner disciples were gathered and confronted this unwanted visitor, but the intruder had gone too mad to speak. Powerful Sword Essence lashed out from their body like whips, cleanly slicing apart anything in their path, and one of the elders exclaimed in horror that this was Zuo Li, the head of the neighbouring Bronze Mountain Sword Sect. Their cultivation must have gone terribly awry to have turned into a mindless beast of destruction, but they had no time to ponder the cause. Immediately they engaged their enemy, but they were clearly of the Golden Core realm, and a higher stage than anyone in the sect. Wielding their blades and their Sword Esssence, they struck the maddened sect head from every angle, but the resistance was too fierce and they were pushed back within the bounds of the sect. The automatic defenses were easily overwhelmed, and countless disciples were slaughtered even as the demon defended against their strikes.Through a combination of skillful timing and luck they managed to wound the foe after a long battle, but in the end he alone had not yet fallen. His experience with the blade, skill in controlling qi and naturally powerful body had allowed him to compete, but alone he would have stood little chance if his opponent hadn't been wounded beforehand. With a strike that split the clouds, he pierced through the bestial cultivator's Sword Essence and took their head. His mind was completely pure and betreft of any thought but the movement of his sword, granting him a great deal of insight that would surely allow him to break through to the Golden Core realm. An instant later, however, his thoughts were greatly disturbed as he felt a presence reaching at the edges of his mind. It struck swiftly and pierced through his defense; he fell into a state of unconsciousness, and struggled to keep whatever had invaded his mind from exerting its influence over him. He would not allow anyone to dominate him, successfully defeating the presence, but it did not leave. He opened his eyes to a sea of fire, and instinctively he knew he was not awake, but had accessed the Sea of Consciousness where his inner self was given shape. Before him stood a woman, dressed in the robes of nobility and possessing a sharp-featured beauty. She introduced herself as a devil, the very same that had driven the other sect's leader insane, and declared she would be taking up residence in his mind from now on. He immediately attempted to force her out of his consciousness, but the devil explained that she was only here because she wished to benefit him. Zuo Li was once a promising cultivator, but they grew unimpressive due to their middling ambition, and could no longer keep up with her teachings. This destabilized his cultivation base and turned him mad, but she felt that he was far more qualified. She knew he would soon be reaching Golden Core, the stage where progressing further would become immeasurably harder and slower, which he was aware of as well. Despite the extended lifespan that resulted from forming one's Golden Core, most cultivators died of old age before ever reaching Nascent Soul, the level of power which only the most powerful cultivators in the Mortal Realm had attained — progress after that was so slow that most sought to find a path to the realm above that of mortals, the Earthly Immortal Realm, said to be unimaginably richer in qi due to a closer proximity to the Heavenly Dao that birthed all things.Not intent on being manipulated by this fiend, but glad to take advantage of whatever method they were offering, he allowed them to remain in his Sea of Consciousness and teach him about the forbidden arts of Devil Cultivation. Even in this world of the strong, limits were set in a cultivator's search for power, and not cavorting with devils was the most important rule of all. They were simply too dangerous to be used, too self-destructive, but such warnings did not take his strength of mind and body into account; this devil was just another stepping stone on his road to power. Whilst they conversed in his mind, he healed his wounded body, and with all of the elders dead he took control of what little was left of the sect. Of the 200 or so members, only 40 had survived the carnage, and he directed the repair efforts while practicing unholy methods of contemplation and meditation in secret. The key to the Wicked Path was pain and desire, and all techniques were deeply tied to both. Rather than clearing his mind, he filled it with visions of his inevitable victory, and rather than being filled with serenity the process inflicted pain upon every nerve in his body. He did not heed it, instead turning the pain into strength, and his mentor was very pleased. The devil took great joy in his pain, as cruelty was an innate part of her kind's nature.It strained the body and mind far more than practicing ordinary scriptures, but the speed of his progression did not slow down at all after successfully forming his Golden Core and breaking through to the Core Formation level. The dark talents he learned were used to enhance his sword techniques, plundering the lifeforce of the beasts he hunted and capturing the agony of their deaths within their Beast Cores to consume them directly. Ordinary meditation soon became ineffective however, and he was forced to train in ever more perilous and inauspicious places to produce results. He contemplated the nature of power in frozen lakes, plains of eternally-burning fire and the domains of the restless dead who relentlessly tormented the soul of any living thing that dared to disturb them. He ingested the supernatural poisons of magical beasts and bore their excruciating effects while refining the mixture inside his body until his blood had itself become so deadly that it could kill in an instant. The more suffering he overcame, the further his cultivation grew, and he reached the 8th stage of Core Formation in a mere handful of years.As leader of the sect, he completely restructured its organization and hierarchy, enforcing strict rules that placed loyalty to the sect head above all other matters and banned any sort of internal struggle between disciples, completely unheard of among the sects of the Green River Continent. Disobedience was punishable by death, but the harsh laws against preying upon one's lesser disciples was popular among the weaker sect members who had until then constantly been taken advantage of by their seniors. In honour of this total shift in leadership and structure, he renamed his organization to the Celestial Dragon Sword Sect. The neighbouring sects felt nothing but contempt for this tyrannical Xiong Yang and his army of loyal slaves, and suspected him of being a devil cultivator purely because of his poor reputation among any who were not his disciples. He scorned them in turn, and had no contact with them, but his followers nonetheless took advantage of their wealth by selling off unimportant cultivation resources in the major markets.

HEAVENLY DEMON KING

Some ten years after taking control of the sect, he was once again on the cusp of a breakthrough. His mentor was truly impressed by his long-lasting fortitude, having already surpassed her previous pupil in but a fraction of the time. Due to the difficulties associated with breaking through to the Nascent Soul level, she thought it the perfect time to reveal the most secret and most powerful method of Devil Cultivation to him, or so she claimed. He was led to a barred cave entrance in the barren lands of the north, forced to traverse a system of hidden tunnels and caves inhabited only by nests of demonic Death Mantis beasts, and when he had finally travelled some thousand kilometers downwards he found a truly gigantic man-made seal inscribed with powerful characters, the sorcery that strengthened it of such a high grade that he could not have pierced it at an earlier level of Core Formation. Ill qi spilled out in vast quantities the moment the seal was broken, colder than the grave, enough to freeze one's soul solid and yet so fiercely hot that it made his blood boil in his veins. He descended into the forbidden chamber, absorbing the qi within and forcing it through his meridians no matter the strain, diligently following the instructions given by the devil in his head to obtain the Ten Devils Karma Binding Technique of legendary infamy. He was told that 100,000 years ago, the Heavenly Devil King had spawned from the primordial chaos and used this technique to rule six of the seven realms until the Three Immortal Ancestors Beyond the Heavens, most powerful of all the beings in this world and firstborn of the Dao, personally intervened to destroy them. They were obliterated from the fabric of reality with the exception of the merest fragment of their body, which had buried itself under the earth in the very location he broken the seal of.Meditating upon the peerless might of that ancient being, he channeled his insatiable desire and vowed that he would surpass even their power. The power of the devilish qi intensified and created a pressure akin to the deepest chasms of the ocean floor, but he aimed to absorb it to the last drop and contain it inside himself to fuel his ascension to the Nascent Soul stage. He could feel the final fragment of the Heavenly Devil King lingering in the depths of the earth, the disturbance he had caused finally turning it to dust and joining the swirl of malevolent energies. It was as if the weight of the entire realm was placed upon his body, his organs ceasing to function and all of the muscles in his body tearing as bones cracked and blood poured from his open wounds. Letting out a bestial roar, he could feel his will exerting its influence over the power that entered him, and in that same moment he could sense that his so-called mentor had finally put her treachery into motion: within the depths of his sea of consciousness, she attempted to wrest the power from in and take it for herself, but his will had become ironclad, and neither the remnant of this ancient being nor the one who had taught him the secrets of Devil Cultivation could take what he had claimed as his own.His sea of consciousness became engulfed in crimson light, the power so great that it escaped to the physical world and expanded to fill the entire cavern. In that moment, he claimed the title of Heavenly Devil King and the power of the Ten Devils Karma Binding Technique, its function now frighteningly clear to him. By defeating one's enemy so that they were fully at the mercy of the victor, their soul and karma could be bound to the user of the technique, subjugating them and taking all of their power and cultivation to add it to the user's own. Should the recipient dare to attack their new master again, they could use the technique to crush and devour the bound soul in an instant. Knowing that the devil that had been his mentor no doubt intended to inflict such a fate on him, he expelled her from his mind and did the very same, claiming his rightful spoils as the victor of their battle of wills and obtaining her power and servitude. He appointed the devil as his sword servant, and she gave him the name Tian Mo, a true Devil of the Heavens. With no reason to hide the extent of his glorious powers any longer, he returned to the Celestial Dragon Sword Sect and bound all of the disciples there to him as his servants. The neighbouring sects now had a reason to destroy their hated enemy, but even when all of them put aside their differences and banded together they were no match for a Nascent Soul cultivator. They were bound in turn, empowering him even further, and the conquest of the Sky Ox Kingdom was but the first step.He crushed the rest of the Mortal Realm's kingdoms and the sects within them, besting even those handful of Nascent Soul cultivators that were still seeking a way to enter the Earthly Immortal Realm. The qi requirements for progressing through Nascent Soul's stages meant they were only a fraction more powerful than the instant they had broken through, but the Ten Devils Karma Binding Technique made him more powerful with every enemy he defeated. The earth-shaking battles awakened the Green River Dragon after which the Green Dragon Continent was named, slumbering for 50,000 years and accumulating vast amounts of magical power. More than a mere Magical Beast like the monsters that roamed the wild, it was a true Divine Beast — but he could no longer be stopped. With every other cultivator in the Mortal Realm bound to him, and those who resisted having their soul taken from them forever, he used the mystic battle formations of the most martial-oriented sects and empowered himself and his army to such a degree that even the Green River Dragon was forced to bow down to his power, becoming his steed. With the Mortal Realm under his full control, he used all of the resources it contained to follow the path of all Nascent Soul cultivators, finding the path to the Earthly Immortal Realm in his quest for total domination.

HEAVENS DEFIED

With his ascension to the Earthly Immortal Realm, he was exposed a world greater than any he had known. Every cloud, every blade of grass seemed more profound, the air was dense with qi, and he could feel the laws of the Dao more strongly than in the Mortal Realm. As he had read, the realm was divided into kingdoms and sects much like its lower counterpart, but their size and power were far above it. Every cultivator here was of the Nascent Soul level and above, with even the beasts roaming the wilds only half a step below the status of Divine Beasts. His presence was soon noticed by the dwellers of this higher plane, their minds disturbed by such an evil qi, and their first response was to immediately capture him, or at least make the attempt. But they were only of the first few stages of the Nascent Soul realm, and the power he had plundered from the Mortal Realm was enough to foil their attempts and make them bow to him. As soon as he had taken the title of Heavenly Demon King, he had placed himself upon a path of neverending conflict with the self-righteous sects of the higher planes, who could not even see their own corruption. He continued to expand, challenging the Earthly Immortals who ruled over the realm; their power far exceeded all of the souls now bound to him, their might sufficient to destroy all of the Mortal Realm with a wave of the hand, but he had not grown so complacent that he relied solely on his most powerful technique. He continued to cultivate his understanding of the sword, and in the Earthly Immortal Realm such things were easier to grasp. With a fraction of the Dao of the Sword under his control, he subjugated the Earthly Immortals and ascended once again.Thusly he progressed, from stage to stage and realm to realm, battling ever greater foes in ever more destructive conflicts. First to the Heavenly Immortal Realm, then the Ancestor Immortal Realm, the Daoseeking Immortal Realm, and finally the True Immortal Realm, that place first birthed by the Heavenly Dao in the time before time. It was in this place where the Three Immortal Ancestors Beyond the Heavens dwelled, dedicated to the protection of the most pure of all the Dao's expressions in the physical world, the Daosource World Tree. They had foreseen his arrival thousands of years ago, but their cultivation had gone awry and they could not enter the lower realms for fear of collapsing them with the power of their presence. Now he had come to them, a mere Daoseeking Immortal of the 9th stage challenging the Heavens themselves, and they laughed. Their power far exceeded his own, there was no doubt of this, but he would not falter — all of his numberless servants empowered him above his current level, his foundation was unshakable, and he had taken all of the mightiest cultivation methods and qi arts of the lower realms and mastered them to perfection. After a journey that had lasted over a thousand years, century upon century of struggle, he plunged into the final battle of his conquest, a battle that caused all the realms to quake and yet lasted only a handful of seconds. Millions of kilometers were traversed, and thousands of hidden arts were unleashed for the first time in 100,000 years. His comprehension of the Sword Dao had reached its peak, unless perhaps he could grow it even further by glimpsing the purest form of the Heavenly Dao within the Daosource World Tree, but this alone was not enough to trouble the Three Ancestors overly much. His body had become harder than any material in the Seven Realms after his plundering of the secrets of Body Cultivation, and with the attainment of the Golden Rainbow Body he survived even after being destroyed countless times, the shape of his form embedded into every individual cell. He persevered, though his body was forced to reconstitute itself from the merest drops of blood, and in the end he stood as the sole victor. Manifesting his greatest sword technique, the Heaven and Earth Existence-Severing Strike, he cut the bonds of universal karma tying the existence of his godlike foes to reality, and reduced them to nothing. They disappeared from history and memory, remembered only by the one who defeated them.Then he stood before the Daosource World Tree, the anchor of all the Seven Realms and zenith of all the energies that it contained. With an exercise of will he channeled his Sword Dao and cut open the immeasurably ancient jade-like bark, entering inside.

EMPEROR'S EPILOGUE

None can know what he saw then, gazing upon the origin of the world's existence itself. What is clear is that after reaching the True Immortal stage and exiting the Daosource World Tree, his otherworldly powers had returned to him. Casting the spell he had devised so long ago, the Emperor finally returned to Earth, and Althea thereafter. Little had changed since his departure, owing to the estranged flow of time, and those who had lost the way of his teachings were reintroduced to them, willingly or not. He tied all three of his domains together using his body as the anchor, once again using the Well of Misery, this time in conjunction with the Ten Devils Karma Binding technique so that all living beings under his domain would grant him their power and become bereft of all suffering in return. All was right once more, but the insatiable could by its very definition not be satiated — when he gazed upon the Heavenly Dao, he saw the true extent of the multiverse, an infinite expanse of worlds waiting to be claimed, and desire was inflamed in him once more.If this was not destiny, then what was it?

THE CULTIVATION OF THE DAO

In the expanse of the Seven Realms, cultivation is the art practiced by those seeking power and immortality. There are countless different forms of cultivation, but its goal is always to increase one's longevity and acquire mysterious supernatural abilities in the process. This is often accomplished by meditating, taking in ambient qi from the environment through one's meridians and cycling it through the body, and contemplating the Heavenly Dao, the ultimate source of reality from which all concepts and laws were birthed.Throughout his 1,000 years of struggle in the Seven Realms, the Emperor has obtained a full understanding of a myriad of different cultivation methods and practiced them to perfection, as well as reaching true control over numerous aspects of the Dao.Divine Spirit Root: Spirit Roots are the configuration of one's 361 meridians and the pathways of qi that flow through the body akin to blood vessels. Due to his high-ranking Root Awakening Ceremony and numerous improvements thereafter, he was able to obtain a peerless Spirit Root that effortlessly takes in large amounts of qi from the surrounding environment and handles it without issue.Nine Yang Constitution: Related to but not entirely the same as one's Spirit Roots, one's body itself is capable of leaning more towards a certain area of element of cultivation depending on the bloodline and the circumstances of birth. Brimming with ambition, his body naturally leans towards explosive and energetic cultivation techniques that place danger upon the practicioner, somewhat mitigating the severity of the risk associated with using them.

SWORD CULTIVATION

To be a sword cultivator is to dedicate one's life to the blade, not merely training in its use but contemplating the true essence of what it means to wield a weapon and the philosophy of a warrior who lives by the sword. Their arts are rarely as flexible as other cultivation types, but make up by these by being uncontested in their possession of the most powerful combat techniques. After opening a path to Earthly Immortal Realm and beyond, Arsaces was able to grasp the universal laws of the Dao pertaining to the blade more and more until he became capable of manifesting this higher knowledge as a part of his sword techniques.Sword Essence: The power that comes from focusing one's qi to a cutting edge and giving shape to it outside the body. The aura of powerful cultivators can manifest as burning light that flares up around their body, but sword cultivators are capable of turning their aura into an actual weapon by shaping it into their favoured armament. Their essence can cut as powerfully as a two-handed blade or as gracefully as a sharp-edged whip, with the additional benefit of striking suddenly and without prior warning to any who are not skilled at sensing the subtle movements of internal energy.Empty Hand Refinement Style: The sword style developed by the Emperor through many lifetimes of mastering the blade. Peculiarly, it is in fact a bare-handed style that does not use any sort of physical sword at all, instead using a combination of Sword Essence and total comprehension of the Sword Dao to cut one's enemy without a blade and exceed the swordmasters who still cling to such petty requirements as having to use a sword to practice swordsmanship. In culmination with his mastery over the art of Body Cultivation, the height of his strikes are capable of splitting the True Immortal Realm, a celestial body similar in size to the largest of stars in Earth's universe, cleanly in two.Supreme All-Cutting Dao: When a master of sword cultivation begins to comprehend the true meaning of the laws surrounding the interactions between a sword and the rest of the world, that understanding can be turned into power. To cut ceases to be a mere action, and becomes a command enforced upon the world with the authority of the Heavenly Dao. More than cutting through flesh or steel, his skill has grown to a point where there are few things he cannot cut, from breaking a pact by severing the perceived connection between the two parties to removing knowledge of an event from one's mind by cutting it from their memories.Heaven and Earth Existence-Severing Strike: The ultimate expression of the Sword Dao, this technique targets the bonds of karma that tie the foe's existence to the universe, those threads of cause of effect which allow them to interact with reality and vice versa. In an instant all of the bonds are severed, reducing them to nothingness and obliterating them so thoroughly that not even those who knew them when they were still in being can recall that they once existed.

BODY CULTIVATION

Whereas most cultivators focus on their spiritual self and internal energies, considering the physical body an afterthought that is occasionally manipulated through the use of certain techniques, body cultivators focus all of their meditation and training upon the express goal on making their physical form as powerful as possible. They consume the flesh of mythical beings, engrave their skin with runes, and undergo rigorous exercies of endurance to enhance all functions of the body to supernatural levels.Golden Rainbow Body: The peak of the Seven Realms' Body Cultivation techniques, the Golden Rainbow Body is a state of physicality obtained only after progressing through the countless stages of body enhancement. Whereas earlier stages will make the body like stone, iron, or bronze, the Golden Rainbow Body is the expression of the Heavenly Dao's promise to physical beings, an assurance that one's material self is a blessing rather than a curse in a world where the spirit is commonly held to be the highest form of self. It is perfect in every function, the thinnest part of the skin harder than the scales of divine dragons, the muscles tireless and denser than the core of a star, and the senses of such acuity that they are capable of viewing qi and disembodied spirits with with their third eye closed. One's strength becomes unbound by many laws of the Dao, gaining the capability of wielding and throwing Realms themselves or punching with such force that space itself is shattered. Their speed becomes of a similar nature, traversing a billion kilometers in the blink of an eye and having the laws of space engraved in their physical form so thoroughly that it becomes possible to appear in another location instantly purely through bodily excellence. The healing factor, too, is of a vastly superior sort, the form of the user embedded in every single cell so that even their merest drop of blood surviving an attack allows them to reconstitute their form to full health in moments. Lastly, all parts of the body have become highly resistant to attempts to warp or otherwise influence its form, from diseases to the striking of pressure points.Golden Emperor Palm: Owing to the nature of Body Cultivators, this technique is one of simple effectiveness. Manipulating their body to grow to a gargantuan size, the cultivator slams their world-dwarfing palm onto the general area of their opponent, crushing them flat with unimaginable physical strength,Radiant Sun Mantra: Focusing upon the power of bodily evolution, those following the path of Body Cultivation can reconfigure the biological structure of their skin to absorb vast amounts of light from the surroundings and release it as an illuminating blaze of power that gives off the appearance of a sun in the shape of a man, incinerating the surroundings with the heat and force of an exploding star.Nine Arts Dark Bodhisattva Reincarnation: While the destruction of one's physical form ordinarily spells doom for living beings, not all cultivators are bound to such restrictions. Manifesting the principle of the soul being intrinsically tied to the body, a peerless body cultivator who finds themselves without a physical form may reembody themselves with seemingly no true point of origin, in fact regrowing that which was lost from the shape of the spirit itself. Tainted by devil cultivation, this technique greatly disrupts the order of the world with its use.

DEVIL CULTIVATION

Cultivation could in essence be considered a gift from the Heavenly Dao, but humans are not the only beings who practice it. Devils, beings of pure evil and cruelty birthed from the primordial chaos that existed before the universe, have twisted the art of cultivation to suit their needs and increase their already considerable might, primarily harnessing the power inherent in feelings of pain of desire to feed their techniques. By absorbing the remnants of the Heavenly Devil King's qi and relentlessly seeking for more scriptures of the wicked arts, Arsaces has become the supreme master of all techniques making up this forbidden path.Qi Plundering Art: Drawing strength from the user's desire to take that which belongs to others for themselves, they reach out with tendrils of pure darkness that impart a sensation of deathly cold and leech the qi from the spirit of its target. The target's power decreases and their energy is drained with every strike from the the technique, additionally causing a terrible numbness that will eventually paralyze the victim and leave them unable to breathe.Ten Spirit Poison: Through the excruciating act of ingesting the poisons of powerful magical beasts and refining them within the body, the user's blood and skin becomes as lethal as all the consumed poisons combined, capable of killing even divine beasts and powerful cultivators with but a single touch. The poison immediately passed through clothing and skin and pierces the very soul of the victim, corroding it from the inside out until only a hollow shell remains.Jade Devil Dao Flame: By exposing one's body to pure yang fire and channeling the immense agony of meditating inside of heat comparable to the surface of a star, experiencing the sensation of being burnt to ash over and over again, the user gains the ability to give this pain a physical form in the form of bright green flames that spring forth from their hands and latch onto the nearest living thing. The flames do not cause any harm to the physical body, but inflict an unbearable pain exceeding even what the user experienced while cultivating the technique, and burn away the soul in a sea of wicked fire.All-Slaying Tribulation Fist: Harnessing the dangers of cultivation itself, and the infamous phenomenon of qi deviation that is an ever-present peril to those seeking immortality, the user decides that to succeed is not enough — they will not be satisfied until others fail and die. With a single strike to an enemy's solar plexus, the root of all internal energy, they greatly destabilize the target's cultivation base, forcing their qi to collapse in on itself and completely destroying the body from within. This technique can also be used on different locations of the body, for example striking the wrist to cause any flow of qi from the root to the hand to make the target's arm explode.Space-Crushing Devil Grasp: By focusing all of the dark emotions in one's heart and mind and forcing them outwards, the user's aura becomes of such malevolence that space itself is warped in its presence. By changing the shape of the inauspicious qi surrounding their body at all times, they can twist space alongside it to redirect blows and cause attacks of otherwise perfect accuracy to miss. Should constant defense begin to bore them, the user can greatly expand the area of their aura and use it to reach out towards their opponent, capturing them in a prison of bent space that causes all attacks performed within it to be redirected back to the attacker.Ten Devils Karma Binding Technique: The ultimate technique of the art of Devil Cultivation, personally created by the first Heavenly Devil King to subjugate all of the Seven Realms. By enforcing one's will upon a defeated opponent or willing servant, their soul becomes inextricably bound to the user's own, granting them full control over the bound party's soul and the power contained within. The raw power the newly-bound servant possesses is added to the master of the binding's own strength, and they gain access to all of their techniques and cultivation for their own use. Should the bound party rebel against the binder, they can use this connection to crush their soul in an instant.