Chapter 270: The Nine Heavens Universe
Chapter 270: The Nine Heavens Universe
Unlike the solar system where Tianyi lived his first life, the Nine Heavens Universe’s solar system, which Tianyi aptly named the Nine Heavens System—Yes, very original, he knew—all the planets were habitable. Regular mortals may not have the strength to live on most of them, but cultivators definitely possessed those qualifications.
Usually, when a true immortal enters the Seamless Immortal Realm, a Daotree would sprout out from their Daoseed inside their dantian, but Tianyi no longer had a dantian or even a body. His actual body was the Nine Heavens Universe, and his current body was closer to a conduit leading to the Nine Heavens Universe.
If it was destroyed, he simply needed to form a new conduit. Though, he would prefer not to. To make another conduit with his current physical abilities would take too long.
It was not that Tianyi lacked the will but that he was being suppressed by the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. Even if he wasn’t suppressed, Tianyi was disinclined to make too many conduits to his universe.
The Nine Heavens Universe had a set limit of resources needed to evolve, and if Tianyi used too much, it could delay its growth. Or worse, cause it to collapse on itself. Not that there was a high chance of that happening unless he consciously chose to do it. But no one in their right mind would perform such an act.
The Nine Heavens universe was currently expanding at an exponential rate. Even without trying, Tianyi could sense everything that was happening, but one glaring thing was missing in his universe, life.
He had an instinct that once his universe produced life, his cultivation and power would reach another level, another step. Still, that was a long way off as Tianyi felt that he could not control everything in the Nine Heavens Universe.
Sure, Tianyi could control the core sun and eight planets, but everything outside a certain distance was covered in a fog that prevented him from interacting with it. He had already ascertained that the more laws he mastered, the more access he had.
But Tianyi was focusing on mastering spacetime techniques first. Just because he mastered the Law of Mass and the Law of Spacetime did not mean he could fully utilize them. To make an analogy, it was like someone discovered a new scientific law, but for it to be considered technology, the new discovery had to be applied in a practical way.
Ninth Heaven, or the sun of the Nine Heavens System, was the most inhospitable location but had the purest energy. It did not emit immortal qi but essence that only immortal sovereigns and divinities should possess.
‘Does this make me a divinity?’ Tianyi had asked himself upon discovery, but he did not fit the criteria for a divinity either. Divinities possessed essence, but through the mastery of their law, they could control the very foundational workings of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System.
For example, a divinity who mastered the Law of Fire could change the rule that fire burned coldly in the Three Thousands Immortal Realms System for a period of time. Sure, it may cost them a ton of time and effort, but it was still possible.
In contrast to Ninth Heaven, Eighth Heaven, the first planet, to First Heaven, the eighth planet, produced immortal qi.
‘I’m like a Frankenstein cultivator with aspects of immortals and divinities,’ Tianyi thought.
Still, if any cultivator were to cultivate on any of the heavens and possessed the ability to live there, their cultivation speed would reach a new speed. According to Tianyi’s estimations, their speed might rival the cultivators from the earliest age of the primordial era.
Hence, the reason why Tianyi teleported Ba Shifang to Sixth Heaven and faked his death.
On Sixth Heaven in front of Ba Shifang, the sun’s rays began to gather at a certain point. The clouds descended towards that same point, the tip of a mountain gravitated towards it, and ocean water shot into the sky and rained down.
When all the miraculous phenomenon stopped, an exact replica of Tianyi appeared.
“Was that really necessary, Main Body?” Ba Shifang asked, exasperated.
“No, but it was cool.”
‘He’s got me there.’ Ba Shifang thought. “Anyways, why did you need to fake my death? I even damaged my foundations just to play along.”
“I can’t help it. Sect Master Xia and Mother said that it would be best to create two identities. One is Xi Tianyi, the new immortal lord of the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Directly becoming an immortal lord is nearly unheard of, but it’s better than directly achieving immortal monarch level strength.” Tianyi said with a shrug. “You’ll take my place as Xi Tianyi, while I pretend to be an experienced true immortal that finally mastered the law of space and become an immortal monarch.”
“What is exactly the point of playing two roles?”
“Lower the guards of the people watching us, divert unwanted attention, I guess,” Tianyi said. “I’m not exactly sure, but don’t you find it cool?”
Ba Shifang agreed, but he didn’t show it on his face. “But how am I supposed to impersonate you? I’m not even in the Unity Realm yet, remember?”
“Did you forget about the Thunder Throne Mark IV?” Tianyi asked. Why else do you think I put on such a big show?”
“Because you like showing off like some sort of peacock?”
Tianyi buried Ba Shifang one kilometer into the Sixth Heaven for that comment. “I feel like you’re getting pretty snarky after acting independently for a bit.”
“Back to my main point,” Tianyi continued after he brought Ba Shifang out and acted as if that little episode never happened. “Where do you think we are? In my Nine Heavens Universe, I am practically king here. I can even control the heavenly tribulations. With me here, you’ll be on the fast track to immortality.”
“Sure, I’d be an immortal here, but what about when I return to the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System? Will I undergo another heavenly tribulation? Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose if everyone knows you underwent two heavenly tribulations?” Ba Shifang asked.
“I’ll figure out a way. If worse comes to worst, I can just let out in the Endless Seas. I doubt many would notice you. And if any immortals do, I’ll solve them,” Tianyi said.
Ba Shifang nodded, then his expression hardened. “Main body, what about that Wealth System that tried to attach itself to me? I tried to seal it, but it fled and even stole a part of my South Vermillion Nascent Soul’s foundation!”
Just thinking about that scamming system made Ba Shifang mad.
Tianyi nodded. “I already heard about it when we communicated earlier.”
“Right, since you can connect with your clones again and reached the Immortal Realm, did you discover the whereabouts of Fenghua?”
At Ba Shifang’s question, Tianyi’s expression immediately darkened. His following words were cold as if they crawled from the depths of Cocytus, “Who’s Fenghua? I only have two clones, you and Donghai Longzi. I have no idea what you are talking about.”
‘Just what did she do?!’ Ba Shifang shouted in his mind.
“Anyways, bring out your South Vermillion Nascent Soul.” After a second, Tianyi added. “Bring out your West White and North Sable Nascent Souls as well.”
Ba Shifang nodded, and a translucent bird flew out of his dantian, followed by a tiger and tortoise, both nearly as translucent.
Under Tianyi’s control, the clouds on Sixth Heaven began to swirl above them, directing the sun’s rays towards Ba Shifang. In reality, it was nourishing his weakened nascent souls with essence.
Ba Shifang’s sickly pallor started to gain a healthy glow once more under the nourishment. It would take some time, but his body was no longer in danger of destroying itself as long as his nascent souls were being nourished.
In fact, they would rise to another level after the nourishment was done. Since the Buzhou Immortal Sect had no divinity or immortal sovereigns until recently, few could have their bodies and souls nourished by the pure essence of the world.
Tianyi didn’t pay attention but started to scrutinize the avian-shaped nascent soul. With the passage of time, his frown became deeper and deeper. Finally, Ba Shifang couldn’t help but ask. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m sensing a particular essence in your nascent soul that didn’t originate from it and the Nine Heavens Universe,” Tianyi said. “Law of Luck? No, luck is a concept. It should be closer to the Law of Probability.”
“So, the system was created by an immortal sovereign?”
“No, the residual essence feels more…potent than Mother’s. If I had to guess, the system originates from a divinity, one that had been severely weakened. Maybe, even a survivor from the primordial era,” Tianyi said.
“Why would a divinity know about systems? No offense to the natives of the Three Thousand Realms System, but the thought of a technological system does not conform to their style,” Ba Shifang said.
“Did you say the system stole the foundation of your nascent soul and fled? It’s likely that it had parasitized many hosts before. It’s also highly possible that he learned the knowledge from a previous host that was reincarnated from Earth,” Tianyi analyzed.
Ba Shifang stayed silent for a moment before asking. “Do you think Peng Yun could have been a reincarnator like you?”
Now, it was Tianyi’s turn to stay silent. “I don’t know. Well, it’s too late to find out now since he’s already dead. Honestly, it feels like half the reincarnators I meet are against us while half are with us. Said half being people related to me.”
“So, what should we do about it?” Ba Shifang asked.
“For now, nothing. I don’t have a clue where the system fled to, and you need to focus on recovering. I’m going to see if I can glean any insights,” Tianyi said as his body dispersed to focus on comprehending the Law of Probability and any concepts under it.
“Going with Bai Weiwei’s protagonist’s luck, it wouldn’t have attached itself to her, right? Then she would rise up and bring the downfall of the Buzhou Immortal Sect,” Ba Shifang said.
Tianyi snorted, but inwardly, he couldn’t help but have other thoughts. ‘Just in case, I’ll kill her if I see her. Not like she doesn’t hate me enough already.’
-line break-
While Tianyi’s universe incarnation was dealing with Ba Shifang, his body in the Huang Realm opened its eyes and flew to Jade Peak Palace.
“Daoyi, I want your thoughts,” Tianyi suddenly said, looking for Daoyi.
“I know Master wants us to get married, but can you wait till I reach the Immortal Realm?” Daoyi said with exasperation. “You didn’t want me to marry you when you were unsure of your chances. Shouldn’t you give me the same privilege?”
“What, no? I mean, yes. That’s not what I was going to ask about!” Tianyi flubbed.
“Oh, then what is it?”
Tianyi didn’t say anything, but his body and clothes started to change. He still wore his gold coronet, but the design had changed. His clothing had changed from purple and gold to black and gold with form-fitting armor. And finally, his hair changed from pure black to snow-white.
He reached into the air and grabbed a mask out of nowhere. He placed it on his face, and it covered everything above his nose. “How do I look?”
“You look like a villain,” Daoyi honestly said.
“Perfect,” Tianyi said.
“What’s it for?” Daoyi asked, wondering about Tianyi’s sudden shift in fashion.
“From now on, this appearance will not be my identity as Xi Tianyi but as an immortal monarch,” Tianyi said. He waved his hand, and a portal appeared in front of him. “Now, if you excuse me, I have a meeting to attend.”
-line break-
Inside the grand hall of the sect master’s mansion, a war council was currently held. And one of the deputy head elders had yelled in anger upon learning of the White Wind Sect’s betrayal.
“How dare they!”
“Such actions cannot go unpunished, lest other vassal gets the idea that the Buzhuo Immortal Sect is just a paper tiger.” Another elder added.
“I agree, but who should we send?” Assignment Hall Head Elder Brightwing asked. “All of our monarch-level experts are currently busy with affairs. The Tripartite Alliance and Anti-Heaven Alliance are using a divide and conquer strategy to weaken our forces. We can send some of our reserve monarchs, but that would affect the grand strategy.”
“Then what if the other third-rank forces get the same idea? Wouldn’t that also affect our long-term plans? If we cannot reign them in, the consequences will hardly be worth the effort to reign them in the future.”
“What do you say, War Hall Head Elder?”
Seeing everyone’s attention geared towards him, Head Elder Huang Feihong spoke. “I see three methods.”
“As expected of our Martial Monarch.”
“First, we wait till our monarchs are not on assignment and send them to annihilate the White Wind Sect,” Head Elder Huang Feihong said.
“Who knows how long it will take before the monarchs have enough time, and the head elders have to stay to oversee the overall situation, so we cannot have more than three leave the sect. But neither can we delay it too long. What is the second option?”
“Our second option is to send a squad of true immortals. Since we can’t beat them with quality, we’ll send quantity. Although the White Wind Sect has a guardian formation that uses the environment, he cannot delay the inevitable. In my eyes, Grand Elder Xi’s son, Xi Tianyi, is a capable candidate to lead the task force. He already has the experience and defeated Immortal Riftwind once,” Head Elder Huang Feihong said.
“Rejected. Elder Xi poses too much temptation for the two rebel forces. It was already a risk for him to leave to rescue his clone. Not only did he fail, but he needlessly endangered himself. If he falls, it’ll affect Grand Elder Xi too much. It’s not worth the risk. Quick, tell us, what’s the third option?”
Huang Feihong didn’t say anything and looked at the silent sect master. “I don’t have a third option, but Sect Master does.”
All the immortals glanced toward Sect Master Xia, who revealed a smile. “Who said we don’t have an available immortal? Did everyone forget of our new immortal monarch from Jade Peak?”
At his words, everyone had a dawning realization. “Tell us, who is the immortal? For him to have mastered the Law of Space and even parts of the Law of Time, we should recognize him, right?”
“Yeah, Sect Master. Stop whetting our appetite and tell us already.”
“It wouldn’t happen to be Xi Tianyi, right?” One elder asked.
“What? Are you crazy? How could it be Xi Tianyi? Sure his Immortal Ascension Heavenly Tribulation was heaven-defying, but it’s impossible for a mortal to master the Law of Space. He is talented in space, but he should be more talented in the Law of Lightning than space. Otherwise, why would he use lightning to defeat Riftwind? Have you forgotten that he carries the Heavenly Lightning Spiritual Vein?”
“You’re right. I don’t know what possessed me to conclude that mortal could directly leap into the Seamless Immortal Realm.”
Seeing that everyone had finished discussing, Sect Master opened his mouth. “You won’t recognize him. He’s an ancient elder who removed himself from the mundane world to focus on cultivating his path over five hundred thousand years ago.”
“Such a long time, that’s even longer than most immortal sovereigns live. What a tenacious willpower.”
“Quick, tell us his title.”
“His title is…” Before Sect Master Xia had a chance to finish, a portal opened at the entrance of the hall.
A figure dressed in black and gold brocade stepped out. He had a gold coronet with snow-white hair on his head. Most distinct was the overwhelming presence he exuded as if space constantly twisted around him.
“You can call me Monarch Nine Heavens.”