So, um... the dark guild knows now. Well, they know something anyway. They're aware there's another demi-god level expert in Glory City besides Ye Mo, but here's the thing - since I avoided actually fighting them directly, they're not really sure what they encountered. Could've been just a powerful law weapon? Or an actual person. They're probably still scratching their heads about it.
Nie Li left the city a couple days ago to venture outside - typical him, always rushing off somewhere. The people from Tian Yuan plateau should be here in about two weeks, maybe less. I'm wondering if they'll run into each other out there? Since Ye Han got killed, those families over in the nether realm won't know about Glory City anymore. But now that the dark guild took such a beating... well, I'm not sure they won't try to sell us out for information. And knowing Nie Li, he'll probably end up staying at the Jade Seal family for quite a while.
After about a week, Xiao Ning'er and I decided to head out. Ye Ziyun came along too, though - get this - only after a day of traveling, she casually mentions she lied to her father. Told him she'd be in seclusion for a long time. We basically picked up a trouble maker, didn't we?
Once we got going, we flew most of the way, stopping at night to rest. And here's where my shape-shifting ability came in handy - I transformed into a girl and got permission to share their tent. What a convenient power, right?
Along the journey, we fought plenty of demon beasts - black gold rank, legend rank, you name it. Whenever the girls needed backup, I was there, so they got tons of experience fighting fearlessly. I gave Ye Ziyun some of my soul spirit liquid too, and between that and everything else, she reached Black Gold rank 5 while Ning'er broke through to Legend realm 1.
We finally made it to the endless desert. Had to carry Ziyun and use movement techniques to fly through - took about half a day to reach the ruins. When we got there though... well, it was just destruction everywhere. Still managed to find a large chunk of meteorite iron after inspecting this broken lion statue.
I was expecting to see the desert palace that Nie Li encountered, but... nothing. So I pulled out my notebook and wrote "Temporal Demon Spirit Book is 600km to the east" and used my LoHP ability. Turns out my calligraphy has flaws - big surprise - but the interesting part was the correction: "information is wrong, it's actually about 13,045 km to the northwest."
At my maximum speed, that's a four-day continuous flying journey. So I turned to the ladies and said, "You must be exhausted, right? Want to take a four-day rest? I'll transport you there."
"Why four days?" Ziyun asked, looking confused. "What do you mean transport us?"
"Four days to the next location..." I activated my ring world and placed them both inside. Ziyun was absolutely stunned to suddenly find herself in a minor world. Ning'er had to explain it to her, while they went to explore the beautiful mansion I'd created in there.
I activated my energy absorption - hadn't used it in so long. Could feel all that potential energy around me, the light, heat, even sound energy getting absorbed and converted into physical, chemical, and soul force energy. Felt incredible, actually. Then I took off at maximum speed manipulating fundamental forces, though interestingly, no sonic boom even when I went past the sound barrier. I rested for an hour after each day of flying.
Had several flying demonic beasts try to attack me during those days, but they were dealt with quickly. After checking with LoHP a few more times, I arrived at the isolated island after about four and a half days.
I landed and let both girls out. They were pretty bored in spending all the time inside.
Well they were surprised to see the embarrassed Shen Xiu in a maid uniform though. Well knowing her family's fate girls didn't bother to embarrass her further. They were accommodating enough to speak and converse with her by next day. She was once arrogant enough to criticize every commoner in glory city due to her noble bloodline. Now she is promoted to a gardener.
Well, Shen Xiu was humbled quite easily but she only fears Tao. Especially after her first encounter with him. She wants to seethe in rage, but in reality she is now nothing more than a slave. Now months later, she gets cultivation resources to train and some medicinal materials to look for, a little loneliness and occasional requests from her master. Life doesn't seem so unfair to her. Anyway she doesn't slack off apart from her usual duties. And is already a legend rank 1 in cultivation.
On the outside, he had to explain the reason for keeping her in to the two partners just to stop the barrage of questions.
Few moments later;
We stood before this massive barrier.
The girls tried their strongest attacks, but couldn't even scratch the seal. I commented from behind them, "Don't bother. Even if you were a million times stronger, you wouldn't be able to budge that barrier."
"How? A million times...?" they stammered.
"It's a divine barrier," I explained. "Capable of withstanding multiple attacks from a martial ancestor realm person."
"What realm is that? How come we don't know about it?"
"That's about six major realms above where you currently are, Ye Ziyun. You haven't heard of it because... well, it was mentioned in an ancient book inside the ruins from Orchid City..."
Xiao Ning'er gave me this look with squinted eyes - she could tell I was lying without batting an eyelash.
"So how do we open it?" she asked.
I took out my two temporal demon spirit pages and input a little law power and soul power to study the fluctuations. I could sense an entirely different law emanating from them - the power of space-time law. Drawing on my memories of profound scientific theories about time from my previous life, plus concepts about the space-time continuum and the cyclical nature mentioned in various plots, I could feel this new law circulating around me. I absorbed and refined it into my soul realm.
After about a day of cultivation, and correction with LoHP, I'd reached the limit of legend realm peak in both body and soul, with mastery of more than ten laws including space-time law. Temporal demon page just needs massive amounts of soul force to activate normally. If it was heavenly energy it would have been lower. If you had protagonist's plot armor even better.
I channeled the law energy and soul energy into the temporal demon spirit pages continuously for a minute or two, which amplified the power and attacked the barrier, tearing a hole. We quickly entered and... wow. The scenery was mesmerizing. Green everywhere, with space-time elk moving through circular holes in space, appearing in different places at different times.
I captured one using space-time energy, just the weakest looking one and temporarily extracted its demon spirit through a rune I wrote over its head. The demon spirit went into my soul realm, and my soul form absorbed its properties. Combined with my earlier space demon spirit power, I now had space-time abilities too. I put the space elk spirit back and gave it some elixir as compensation - seemed only fair.
Then I took out my temporal pages again and used my understanding of space-time law to visualize taking the book from the past versions of the pages in my hand. When I did... the Temporal Demon Spirit Book appeared in my hand. I was so glad it worked.
The surroundings suddenly changed to a barren island. The two girls, who'd been looking for treasures, saw I'd obtained something and came over to me.
"So this is what you were looking for?" one asked.
"This is the book that brought... never mind. Either way, this is definitely a treasure."
I imagined us being taken inside, and suddenly our surroundings changed again. We were in this massive library with row after row of bookshelves filled with countless books. Had to be more than two million books in there.
Yu Yan suddenly appeared. "Ziyun, meet Yu Yan, the spiritual goddess of humankind. Yu Yan, this is Ziyun, my friend." Another round of explanations later he finally brought attention back to the books.
"Only those who understand space-time law can use this divine treasure," I explained. "This treasure lets us lock onto a time point outside. Which means we can age inside though slowly, but we'll return to the same point in time when we go back out."
And so we explored the shelves. I did my long-lost hobby of sliding my fingers across the books to sort them with LoHP. For appearances, I gradually took out books and read them too. With photographic memory and perfect recall, I absorbed information about techniques, history, sword and spear arts, demonic cultivation, ancestral saint lands, alchemy, medicine, crafting... mostly runes that weren't in Nie Li's memories.
Weeks passed inside. We'd occasionally go outside to hunt beasts, have meals, do some cultivation. Good thing that with our high life levels, food and liquid intake gets refined thoroughly. There are no mortal troubles except one. Because even immortals need to have children. Everything is convenient with Qi and soul energy manipulation that no one ever bothered to do things manually? He wasn't sure if evolution is stagnant at same level as humans used to be.
When the first month hit, I experienced some stomach pain that baffled me until I remembered - I'd been staying as a girl for more than thirty days. When I consulted Ning'er and Ziyun, they explained how to use soul force to prevent hormone release.
Soul force circulation can turn off the natural trigger cycle, protect the limited supply of eggs inside, but I could only do this after this episode passed. Well there is no genetic technology, but there are scriptures into body refining techniques that take this into consideration for women. Weird. How does this knowledge even came to being in the first place, before knowing the fundamentals.
Any way I changed back. I am back boys.
With daily input of about 5,000 to 10,000 books, I'd entered everything by now. It'd been a year inside just going through notes, and our friendship had grown stronger from staying together. Ning'er and I would... well, make out whenever we felt like it. Ziyun agreed to connect with my soul realm like the others. Well I didn't want it to happen. But things happen you know.
She also switched to a new cultivation technique she felt more comfortable with, doing compatibility tests mentioned in other books. This temporarily lowered her rank to black gold beginner and changed her soul force circulation pathways.
Yu Yan broke through to heavenly fate, reading flame cultivation techniques and practicing inside a minor world within the temporal spirit book. I'd visit Shen Xiu every month - hadn't brought her inside the temporal space, but I'd given her meals and books about cultivation and useful skills in taking care of medicinal plants and other things.
The ring world is synchronized with my soul. So there is no time delay with her. Also gave her the job of maintaining the alchemy material plantations across several kilometers which I planted using newly learned skillful techniques.
Now as second year is starting ladies had enough search of knowledge and settled down to cultivate. Ziyun reached Legend rank, and Ning reached peak Legend rank 3. I explained snow, wind, and lightning laws to them, so they were cultivating those too.
We'd visit our temporary camp setup outside, made from nearby items, and spend time relaxing together. Hunt outside for a bit, then return to cultivation and gaining knowledge. The compilation and integration of the new three million books was complete.
I spend a lot of nights inside eagerly reading those flawless versions of superior techniques. From demonic, cursed, poison scriptures to Righteous, Buddhist, there is a whole spectrum of knowledge out there. My technique had gained more profound verses, and I'd gained flawless knowledge about everything from advanced forging and material refinement to... well, dual cultivation and lovemaking.
I could virtually do anything I think of one way or the other using this soul energy manipulation provided I have the cultivation and control yet.
He did the reading to a limit but later simply welcomed in the flood of knowledge directly from LoHP. Well he nearly passed out because of that. The information also contained mentions of supreme rank individuals ascending to higher realms. Supreme rank is a step above emperor realm, and the ascension pathway had been closed for billions of years.
When I first brought up dual cultivation shamelessly, both Ning'er and Ziyun were reluctant. Ning'er hesitated, but Ziyun outright refused. And honestly, was I pushing too hard? Am I just collecting women the way Tivan collects rare species in the MCU? Aside from acquiring knowledge, the only thing that seems to spark joy lately is making out with Ning.
And in this tiny pocket world alone, I now have two partners. Shen Xiu and Xiao Ning. I don't know how to bond with 100,000 year old purely rational spiritual God, Yu Yan, so she is out as of now. What happens when I enter the Draconic Ruins Realm? There's still Ye Ziyun, Xiao Yu, Long Yuyin and others I haven't even met yet in alternate universe.
At what point will I actually be satisfied?
It's not like the scriptures warn against being a playboy. Come to think of it, my obsession with happiness through intimacy really began after my transformation ~ after I experienced life in a female body. Maybe that's where this spiral started.
Well now that I think about it, I only had the thought of happiness in sleeping with girls when I just transformed from a boy and not longer after, and I only sleeps nothing more.....
No wonder that old foggy wanted to die. He was a saint. Now I asked for a perfect physique that even changes my gender orientation in transformation upon thought.
So back to being a female to fit in among the group? To be friends?
***
I scoured my ring-world for materials to create a body-cleansing elixir. Found quite a stash. After confirming no nearby spirit beasts, I entered the dimension, uprooted the herbs, and replanted them on the cultivation lands. I brewed a purifying solution designed to flush out the toxins clogging our soul-force pathways. Ning'er and I bathed in it, circulating our soul energy. My body shed some residual medicinal waste, but Ning'er had quite a lot built up ~ I could see the grime visibly sloughing off her skin.
We emerged with newly cleansed bodies, brimming with vitality ~ and yes, we celebrated. During that tender moment, I confessed doubts of my inner pervert that I'd kept buried. She just laughed at me, mocked me a bit, and then said, sincerely, that she didn't care what I was ~ male or female. That... felt good. But something told me she will be using this joke for as long as it is.
Her transformation was complete. Ning's hair now shimmered with lightning-blue strands ~ part effect of her new cultivation technique, part result of the supreme body refinement technique I shared.
Ziyun witnessed the whole thing. At first, she was shy, visibly torn between curiosity and propriety. But eventually, reason ~ and the allure of advancement ~ won out. She joined us in the soul realm, and though I admit I had some rather unholy thoughts, it was Ning'er who moved first and somehow convinced her to do that. She shamelessly initiated contact with Ziyun, pushing her past embarrassment. We eased her in, and she didn't resist.
And so began our strange, intertwined relationship. So I just had to see where it goes. And I suppose... Fuck if I stay too long will start to like Nie Li? Saints help me.
All three of us reached peak bodily refinement ~ our bodies cleansed, optimized, and spiritually tuned. Mine especially ~ honed to perfection by the Ninefold Crucible techniques. Myself, blue hair Ning, and frosty purple hair of Ziyun.
Taking a break from the complex disturbing thoughts, I decided to reach heavenly destiny. The new techniques and items would automatically compile and add to existing techniques in LoHP. I went back to my minor world with areas of rich heavenly energy for the first time. Body took a moment to identify and transform the existing spirit root. He cultivated the second part of my improved boundless ascension technique that cultivated heavenly dao.
The rich heavenly energy helped me strengthen the vines in my soul realm. They took the appearance of a tree with many translucent and abstract structures. My soul form expanded and remained cross-legged, sitting in front of the tree. Since there were no spirit stones, I used a phaseless fruit divided into 1/25,000 dilution. My cultivation broke through to heavenly fate rank, condensing a translucent soul fire fate soul with a slight deep purple shade similar to my soul realm.
As soon as it connected, an ethereal connection formed between it and one of my life force beads. I stored the rest of the elixir in a storage box made with time law inscriptions that freeze time inside, so they'd be ready whenever I needed them.
For the next few months, I did normal heavenly energy cultivation and reached heavenly fate 2 star. Well now I don't have any thoughts confusing me like before.
It seems my only imperfection, the doubt of mind started to magnify when I approached heavenly fate. Well I got the answer. Jokes on you. I just won't say it because it is impossible for your mortal mind to decipher.
Anyways the difference was massive compared to peak legend rank. I also did flawless body cultivation for the next four months, stepping into a new chapter that included forming ten pillars inside my body, anchoring my soul to body essence. With my evolution-ready body, it was easy. When a need arises, body adapts. It did.
New meridian structures formed ten interconnected veins - something that would take ordinary heavenly fate practitioners years to refine with heavenly energy then align with the attributes of cultivation technique. Well here there is no such bullshit.
These structures condense a new form of energy I called "physique qi," or gang Qi which accumulates in joints and load-bearing structures. It eliminates body weakening during continuous operation, increases flexibility and hardness of every cellular structure. It also has large impact absorption properties that has connection to law energy that it easily influences, like the law of wind and power. Not the law of tiny world, but laws well into the Grand laws, one that make up draconic continent.
Unlike heavenly energy and soul force that move through meridians to desired parts, this new qi permeates throughout the body. As the limit of human biological systems is reached by the end of heavenly star realm, further advancement involves cultivating these ten pillars to energize body structure.
I spent the rest of my time with Xiao Huo, who absorbed heavenly energy and usually slept. He'd grown from handful-sized to chicken-sized, but his cultivation had already reached heavenly fate. Yu Yan reached peak heavenly fate 2 realm.
In the outside, it has only been few moments as I had asked them to step out for my long cultivation breakthrough. But the moment I step out, the soul corridor that was blocked by space time unblocked sending torrent of energy into all of them from me. I had to stabilize a few and stop feeding energy since heavenly energy is not that easy to tame at first.