Dyon could still remember when he first entered the Celestial Deer Sect ruins. After the mischievous and newly born Little Black was caught by him, the imposing aura of his master appeared in the sky like a heavenly deity.
Her true form had been hundreds of meters long, and the tufts of swirling gold fur amid the soft white made Dyon feel incomparably relaxed despite his certainty that she could kill him with a thought.
The fox etched into the wall was very similar. Despite having only a single tail, it seemed far above what a kitsune could match.
Dyon had always wondered why the kitsune were a head of a mere 30th ranked quadrant while dragons controlled the 2nd ranked. Were they not both supreme level beasts?
But, seeing how lacking they were in comparison to this Celestial Fox… Dyon suddenly understood.
Still, the aura continued to grow more imposing as Dyon walked.
To the right, there was a mastiff, with a mane as thick as a lion and a momentum as fierce as a dragon.
Just like its celestial beast relatives, it was entirely bathed in white fur that exuded a palpable pride. Dyon almost felt as though the depictions were becoming more and more life-like.
Even further along were the first two birds Dyon had seen among the Celestial beasts.
To the left was a prideful bird that held its head high above all as its beautiful shimmering feathers fanned outward… A Celestial Peacock.
To the right was a bird emitting a killing intent that made Dyon's heart skip a beat. Unlike the Peacock, it seemed to fly through the skies, its wings spreading majestically… A Celestial Falcon.
Suddenly, as Dyon lifted his foot to proceed forward, he felt a roar pierce through the skies causing his head to snap forward. His heart beat quickened, feeling the air thicken to the point where it felt as though his every move was taken in water.
'A Celestial Lion…'
After witnessing such fantastical creatures of the martial world, whether it be the multi-tailed kitsune, or the mighty qilins, or the prideful dragons, to see such… normal creatures depicted in such a grandiose light… It was truly an odd cognitive dissonance.
Still, there were two creatures left, one of which carried such a magnificent aura that Dyon felt his analysis of these beasts as "normal" was more stupid than anything else.
It almost looked like a dragon, glistening with beautiful scales as it soared through the skies. However, Dyon was absolute certain that it was a fish… But since when were fish so imposing? So awe inspiring?
Its fins, all eight of them, were more like the delicate, crystalline wings slicing through the air completely unimpeded… A Celestial Kun Peng…
...
In the end, Dyon had to rely on his Presence to make it through the throng of pressure and reach the smallest vat of them all. This was, of course, the Celestial Hamster vat.
Although it was small in comparison to the oceans of blood the other celestial beasts had, that was because much like kitsune, Celestial Hamsters didn't grow very large. Still, maybe the strongest aura in this inner world was located here, in a small bowl-shaped vessel the size of a lake.
"There shouldn't be such differences in aura…" Little Yang mumbled. "I think the reason it was more difficult to get here is because this blood is older, therefore it's less diluted through the generations."
Dyon nodded in understanding.
Over the years, due to necessity, the ancient reserves have been swapped out. But, obviously, a celestial beast could only absorb blood from its own lineage. This meant that those celestial beasts that disappeared first would have the greatest aura, not because they were stronger in their prime, but because no one had used their more ancient blood.
Essentially, while the Celestial Kun Peng and the Celestial Lion both had the strongest momentum, it was sadly because they had gone extinct first…
'This world is not almost as strong as an Independent World… It is an independent world. It seems that coming in here would have been dangerous had I not first exposed my connection to Little Yang and Yin.'
Although Mystical Worlds and Legacy Worlds were powerful in their own right, they still needed help. Without the existence of the world itself as they knew it, it would be impossible for these two kinds of worlds to exist.
Why was it that Mystical Worlds and Legacy Worlds had specific locations within the real world? It was because they were tailored to reality. If this world ceased to exist, so would they.
However, Independent Worlds were a step above. Even if every other plane of existence was destroyed in a catastrophe, it would continue to exist.
For the Celestial Beasts to own such a world… It truly did their heritage justice.
This aside, the reality of the matter was that celestial hamster blood was likely the least useful to Dyon. Although he had heard the twins speak of their combat bloodline, they had also said that only the royals among them could ever access it. Obviously, this blood here wasn't that of their royal line. It was still too weak.
However, Dyon suddenly had a vision…
'If I could raise a litter of hamsters or rodents of the like… Their usefulness for scouting would be incredible…'
Even if these rodents gained only a single percent of the true ability of the Celestial Hamsters, it would still give them inconceivable usefulness in reconnaissance missions.
"… What do you think? Would tempering lesser rodent bloodlines give them your abilities? They don't need to gain everything, just stealth and adequate intelligence."
The twins blinked in thought. "It depends on just how heaven defying the tower's formation is… However, judging by the history of the tower… It shouldn't disappoint you." Little Yin finally said.
"The history?" Dyon's eyes brightened. Why hadn't he thought to ask them about it before? Of course they'd know.
"It's very long." Little Yang interjected. "It gave me a headache trying to sort through it all. But the short of it is that it's a treasure that fell from the immortal plane. It was created as a response to the on-going war up there to be the perfect war machine. It falls just short of the treasures of the 33 heavens probably only because it's the newest."
"The immortal plane? I can understand that the trials are still so simple because their difficulty was set by the Demon Sage… The original tower probably didn't have trials to begin with. But, why would it have saint, celestial and dao formation puppets?"
"Your understanding of the immortal plane is too shallow. Saint energy, celestial energy, and enigmatic energy are just far weaker versions of their immortal qi counterparts. The puppets were originally created to house immortal versions of those energies, but those mechanisms have been restricted by the mortal plane. As such, they've all taken a step down to only recognize the mortal qi versions of themselves."
Dyon frowned. "That's ridiculous."
"Maybe so, but a machine of the immortal plane isn't meant to be here in the first place. You're lucky it hasn't imploded."
"Stop being mean to big brother Dyon," Little Yin chastised her elder brother. "The reason it works like this is because immortal qi is the fusion of mortal qi with an infusion of origin source essence.
"The puppets are designed to absorb immortal qi, then depending on the grade of their filtration system, siphon away the energy they are capable of using and discarding the rest.
"On the mortal plane, this filtration system is still working in full gear, but the difference is that it can no longer retain that extra bit of origin source that put its power on a completely different level. Unless you can adjust an immortal level array, it'll stay that way."
"Oh!" Dyon suddenly understood. "That's far less ridiculous," Dyon smiled, giving Little Yin a fruit he had picked up on the 7th tier. It looked no different from a strawberry, but it was actually a lower level celestial fruit!
Had Dyon spent some more time on the tiers instead of blazing through them, he probably would have found many more high-grade vegetation. After all, the beasts here had to survive off of something.
Little Yang pouted. "Where's mine! I'm sorry!"
Dyon and Little Yin giggled, but in the end, they gave a fruit to Little Yang anyway.
"Alright, there's no need to take this blood away since I have the key to enter this place from anywhere. Since we don't have long, I'll leave the experiments for later.
"It'll be fun to blow off some steam by bullying some essence gatherer juniors."
