In total, the old book titled "The Age of Gods and the Four Divine Clans" cited the existence of a total of thirteen realms of power.
Qi Gathering, Blood Condensation, Tendon Hardening, Bone Forging, Meridian Widening, Consecrated Immortal, Sea Expansion, Foundation Forging, Golden Core, Soul Transformation, Life Star, Netherpassage, and lastly, Heaven Merging.
Although there were only thirteen realms in the old book, the person who wrote it clearly stated that beyond Heaven Merging there was at least one more realm; probably the realm in which one would become some sort of god among mortals or something like that.
Reading the thirteen realms, Bai Zemin felt complicated emotions in his heart.
On one side he felt happy that he had read so many light novels of cultivation genre during childhood and adolescence. Thanks to this abnormally powerful hobby of his, he now had at least a few ideas of what he could run into later on in his life.
On the other side, however, he felt confusion.
"The distribution of realms seems a bit messy...? Na. I'm probably thinking like this because I'm lacking information about what each realm means specifically and I shouldn't let myself be led just by their name." Bai Zemin muttered to himself with his eyes fixed on the old book.
It was really weird.
From Qi Gathering to Meridian Widening, Bai Zemin didn't have any problems and more or less understood the function of each of these five initial realms. However, the problem started with the next realm; Consecrated Immortal.
The fact that the name of the realm following Meridian Widening had a name that seemed to be completely out of place with the previous five completely threw Bai Zemin off, leaving him perplexed and confused.
However, he knew one thing for sure.
Starting from the Consecrated Immortal realm is when the "fun began".
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})How did he know that? Easy.
The reason he was so sure about this was that one only became a true Immortal upon reaching the Consecrated Immortal realm. Based on this, Bai Zemin even came to the accurate conclusion that the first five realms were the typical "mortal realms".
One of his biggest doubts, however, was the Foundation Forging realm... why a realm that in at least 99.9% of the novels in existence ranked so high and important?
It was a pity that there were so many pages missing in the old book, which meant that there was no description or detail regarding each realm. Therefore, Bai Zemin could only grope around for now.
Just as Bai Zemin moved his hand to turn to the next page, a bitter expression shone in his eyes and his hand stopped dead in its tracks.
There were no pages left to read.
Bai Zemin raised his head and looked at Kali, who was still paying attention to him.
Feeling his gaze, her pale, dry lips parted: "It's quite an interesting book, don't you think? Although I don't understand much of what it all means I can tell that the world we know is but a grain of sand compared to what's out there."
Bai Zemin nodded silently, turning his eyes to look at the small and insignificant but still magnificent old book. After a minute without saying a word, he smiled.
"No matter how big it is out there," He said, putting the old book in his storage ring. Bai Zemin looked at Kali, as if he could see past her closed eyelids, and said firmly, "Do you remember what I told you back then? I'll take you to see what the view is like from the crest. It looks like I'm still a long way from getting there, but something inside me is telling me it's only a matter of time."
Kali's little mouth opened slightly, clearly surprised by his words. Soon, however, the most beautiful smile Bai Zemin had ever seen from her was plastered on her pale face.
"I look forward to it."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})To be able to heal her so that he could give her back her lost eyes and mobility...
To be able to help her regain her broken memories...
Bai Zemin was far from accomplishing all those things.
But he did not forget it for a second. He never forgot the promise of that day.
Nangong Lingxin subconsciously looked at Cai Jingyi, but soon found that Cai Jingyi was already looking at her. Both women could see the corner of each other's mouth trembling slightly and without saying anything they understood that they were both thinking the same thing.
As to whether what they were thinking was that there would soon be even bigger chaos thanks to Bai Zemin's existence or whether Kali's smile was suggesting something she herself seemed unaware of... only Nangong Lingxin and Cai Jingyi knew.
"So," Bai Zemin's expression became serious and he asked, "Kali, what was it that you discovered about this magic circle?"
The smile on Kali's face retreated like the tide and her voice returned to its natural indifference as she replied, "Take out that book and come over here."
Bai Zemin did as the girl requested without another word.
Kali took the book from his hands and turned a few pages. After stopping, her right hand began to poke at the ink on a particular page.
Although the book was so old that no one could even imagine when it was written, the fact that it was handwritten meant that there were small marks left by the ink on the paper. A normal person might have trouble feeling by touch such marks, but Kali was a soul evolver in the peak of the First Order.
"These characters here, look." Kali's hand movements stopped above some words and pointed, "They are also in the magic circle."
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})Bai Zemin moved closer and looked at the characters pointed out by Kali's hand still resting on the book. After that, he looked at the magic circle.
Indeed, he did not take long to see the same characters from the book written on the magic circle.
"This is..."
"This is some kind of array or formation." Kali nodded softly and said calmly, "Using the power of runes and different rare materials, a person with a lot of knowledge had to craft this magic circle for some purpose."
Bai Zemin stared at the characters in common for a long time without saying anything.
A long time later, Kali raised her head to look at his face and said, "The runes on the side form a symbolic blood pattern, and if we add that to what it says there... Now do you understand why I said it is impossible to pass the defense of this magic circle? Regardless of whether there are still gods alive or not, where are we going to find them? More importantly, this must be a partiicular type of god as other gods won't do."
Bai Zemin nodded but in reality there were other thoughts going through his head. His eyes remained fixed on the magic circle with a thoughtful expression on his face.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally shook his head to dismiss some thoughts and looked at the three beauties calmly, "Be that as it may, we will have a very important meeting today evening. Make sure you get to the palace before the sun goes down."
"It's about what we will do from now on?" Nangong Lingxin asked quickly.
Bai Zemin nodded but did not give any more information about it.
After saying a few more words, Bai Zemin left.
Kali turned her back to the two older girls and calmly said, "You two don't need to stay with me. I will activate my wheelchair barrier so there is no need for you to waste your time guarding me while I study these runes."
"We can..."
Nangong Lingxin failed to get her words across before a thin barrier of golden light completely covered Kali.
"... She locked herself in. I don't know about you but I'm getting out of here. Just like she said, with that barrier open there's no point in staying here." Cai Jingyi shrugged at this and then turned to leave without another word.
Nangong Lingxin glanced at Kali's back for a few seconds before shaking her head and following in Cai Jingyi's footsteps.
The barrier Kali activated was the highest defense of her wheelchair, and unless a level 400 soul evolver appeared personally no one could harm her before exhausting the energy inside the precious Fourth Order Soul Stone.
Time passed slowly but surely.
Kali sat with her face in front of the magic circle for almost two whole hours without moving even a muscle in her body before finally showing signs of life.
She carefully pulled out an exquisite golden dagger from her inner thigh, hidden under her black dress, and after a slight hesitation she finally gritted her teeth and made a deep cut on her left palm.
Ink-red blood ran down her hand which dropped to the ground. Kali, however, ignored this and with a rapid movement threw several drops of blood flying towards the closed door.
With her heart in her throat and a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead, Kali waited nervously and expectantly for a full minute. However, even after a full minute, nothing changed.
"... I guess I was wrong after all." She shook her head and muttered to herself, feeling disappointed but somehow relieved.
Now with no intention of staying there any longer, she made her wheelchair levitate and went into the portal on the opposite side of the room.
What Kali didn't notice was that not far from where she was there was a small, old-looking, rust-filled pocket watch on the side.
Not long after she left, a glow from the mirror shone for an instant and the next second a person appeared.
Bai Zemin!
