"How can that be? There are only three hegemonic sects in the entire Huang Realm. If what you said is true, wouldn't that mean that the Buzhou Immortal Sect controls two-thirds of the entire realm?" Monarch Soulfish said. A chill crawled up his spine as he thought of the implications.
Emperor Begonia shook his head. "I was shocked too when I learned of this matter, but you can rest assured that my information is accurate."
"Why would the Buzhou Immortal Sect do this? If they had such strength, why not eliminate the Eight Pillar Sect and conquer the whole Huang Realm?" Monarch Soulfish asked. Then a horrifying thought occurred to him. "Unless the Eight Pillar Sect is also controlled by the Buzhou Immortal Sect?"
"Fortunately, no," Emperor Soulfish said. "If all three great continents were under their control, why would they continue this farce?"
"Then why? Since they already control two hegemonic forces, why don't they conquer the third?"
Emperor Soulfish stayed silent for a moment. "Because they are wary of outside forces. You should know that aside from the Huang Realm, there is a second immortal-rank realm in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms Universe."
Monarch Soulfish nodded. "The Numinous Realm."
"Unlike us, the Numinous Realm is completely controlled by a single force, the Numinous Sword Sect," Emperor Soulfish said. "The Buzhou Immortal Sect is wary of the Numinous Sword Sect and doesn't want to become mantis stalking cicada. Only when they have complete confidence to swiftly destroy the Eight Pillar Sect and conquer the Earth Continent will they take action."
"Since you want to attack the Buzhou Immortal Sect, are you an agent of the Numinous Sword Sect?" Monarch Soulifsh asked.
"No, had I been, Begonia Tower would not have been so utterly destroyed," Emperor Begonia said.
Monarch Soulfish narrowed his eyes as he heard those words. It wasn't the word themselves that made him feel strange but the complete lack of emotion. Begonia Tower had been founded and grown to its status as a first-rate force through Emperor Begonia's sweat and tears, yet when he spoke of the event, it was as if he was just commenting on the other.
"So you want revenge on the Buzhou Immortal Sect to quell your hatred?" Monarch Soulfish probed.
"hatred? What use do I have for such a useless emotion?" Emperor Begonioa asked. He stared at Monarch Soulfish. "You are talented. You should abandon that useless burden and focus wholeheartedly on cultivating."
Anger rose in Monarch Soulfish's heart. "Shut up! Even if you are the Tower Lord, I won't allow anyone to call Chun a burden!"
Emperor Begonia didn't have any fluctuations in his eyes, there was not even a trace of pity. "Very well, do as you wish. I just want to know if you will agree to our transaction or not."
"Before I answer, I want to know why you want to attack the Buzhou Immortal Sect," Monarch Soulfish said. "Since you said that you harbor no hatred toward the Buzhou Immortal Sect, and it didn't seem like they knew of your survival, why would you want to take action against them?"
Emperor Begonia didn't say anything and just stared at Monarch Soulfish. Even though he didn't detect any killing intent from his former superior, Monarch Soulfish still felt all the hairs on his body rise.
"Alright, it's no use hiding it from you anyway. You'll find out about it after learning the technique," Emperor Soulfish said. "I am simply carrying out another force's will."
Monarch Soulfish inwardly released a sigh of relief once Emperor Begonia spoke, but he still asked. "Whose?"
"Buddhism."
Hearing Emperor Begonia answer, Monarch Soulfish furrowed his brows. If he recalled correctly, Buddhism had fallen at the end of the Primordial Era along with many other forces. "Buddhism still exists, and why would they want to attack the Buzhou Immortal Court? I thought the only other immortal-rank realm was the Numinous Realm."
"Buddhism is far more powerful than you think. They, too, want to grasp supremacy. As for the other details, you don't need to know," Emperor Begonia said. "Now, you had your questions answered. Tell me your answer."
Monarch Soulfish only deliberated for a few moments before he agreed.
"You've made a wise choice. The technique I'm going to impart to you is the Golden Body of Naraka," Emperor Begonia said. "Using karmic sin as energy, refine the body through suffering, and achieve a body equal to immortal artifacts. There is no greater technique for soul cultivators like us who can torture souls."
After Emperor Begonia left, Tianyi stared at Grand Elder Zhang. Although he was part of the Buzhou Immortal Sect in his timeline, his relationship with the Silent Lightning Timeline's Buzhou Immortal Sect hadn't been set in stone—especially after he left at the end of the Sovereign Nine Yin incident.
Still, Tianyi cupped his fist and saluted Grand Elder Zhang. "Thank you for your aid."
"No need. Monarch Nine Heaves is a guest of our Buzhou Immortal Sect after all," Grand Elder Zhang said, causing Tianyi to feel goosebumps from her politeness.
'I wonder if she'll directly try to kill me if I reveal my face,' Tianyi idly thought.
"Do you want to return to the sect or wander the realm some more?" Grand Elder Zhang asked, unaware of Tianyi's thoughts.
"I still haven't accomplished my goal, so I'll be wandering the realm for a bit longer," Tianyi said.
Grand Elder Zhang nodded and threw something toward Tianyi. He caught it in his hand and looked at it. It was a black jade pendant with the word ink engraved on it. "
"If you meet any trouble, immediately activate the pendant, and I'll come as soon as possible," Grand Elder Zhang said.
Tianyi thanked the white-haired woman, and then she left. After she left, Tianyi stared at his surroundings. The seawater had already hidden the giant crater on the seafloor, and everything returned to normal as if a cataclysmic battle had not occurred.
'I'll go to the Earth Continent for now. Who knows, maybe I'll discover some shocking secret. Not likely, though.' Tianyi thought.
He already knew that Sect Master Xia and the other upper echelons had watched his confrontation with Monarch Soulfish and Emperor Begonia. The Buzhou Immortal Sect had three ways to observe the Huang Realm using the three floating palaces in the Vast Void.
The closest Tianyi could describe it was likening the three immortal palaces to satellites. Of course, it didn't mean they could observe everything.
Tianyi's battle with Emperor Begonia must have caused too much of a stir, eliciting them to observe the area he had been in and allowing them to realize his uniqueness. There was no way a normal immortal monarch could resist Emperor Begonia's soul methods and cause such destruction after all.
Hence why they sent Grand Elder Zhang to save him. They saw value in him and wanted to draw him even more to their camp and timeline.
Not that Tianyi planned to stay. Even if they sent a thousand beautiful women to him as a honey trap, he would still choose to leave. Part of it was because he didn't want to abandon his mother, Mengfei. The other was because of the lack of appearance of reincarnators.
This meant that his mom from Earth could never be found. He had tried to search for his mother, but that would require him to access the Threelives Stone in the Nether Realm, which was impossible for anyone below the Divinity Realm.
The third reason was because of the faster time flow. Generally, the less stable a realm was, the faster the time passed. As such, weaker realms like lower-ranked realms experienced time much faster than higher-ranked realms like the Huang Realm.
Although time flowed much faster, the qi density and other elements were much inferior. This included talents. If a heavenly spiritual root appeared in one person out of a million, a person with a heavenly spiritual root might not even appear in a trillion in a lower-ranked realm.
Everything in the universe had a finite life, even the universe itself. Realms were born from the realm essence produced by destroyed planets. They, too, would eventually age and die. Perhaps their remains would form a new realm, but it would always be weaker if born naturally.
Since that was the case, this meant this timeline was inferior to his timeline. If it had been superior, Tianyi might have thought of a way to transport the people he cared about here, but it wasn't. Eventually, it would age and die, becoming nutrients for other, stronger timelines.
Of course, that is if none of the denizens of the timeline could figure out a way to strengthen it and reverse the process.
Tianyi paused mid-flight. Perhaps the reason why Monarch Soulfish remained in the Seamless Realm was because of this reason. If you placed two people with the exact same talent and experience in a higher and lower realm, the higher realm would always progress faster and have higher potential.
He shook his head. That still didn't make a hundred percent sense, either. Sect Master Xia and Grand Elder Zhang were both in the same realm as in his timeline. Or not, he couldn't tell.
Tianyi sat in a lotus position above the water and began to meditate. He felt as if he had grasped some important point.
Six months later, Tianyi opened his eyes and released a breath. "Although timelines have the same starting point, the longer, the farther they are from the divergent point, the fewer resources they have. So, although a few key people seem to have the same cultivation, there should be fewer experts overall."
The longer time passed, the faster the time flow should be for the weaker timelines, expediting their decline. Not that the occupants could tell unless they reached a certain level or had a unique artifact.
Judging from that, only an additional hundred years had passed, the point of divergence shouldn't have happened over three hundred years ago. The only thing Tianyi could think of was reincarnators like him. Since reincarnators didn't appear in this timeline, it split off, right?
"If I can regress time to before the divergent point, could I then travel to my own timeline?" Tianyi asked aloud. He immediately shook his head.
Ignoring whether it was possible, the amount of energy needed was too insane. He would be damaging the foundation of his Nine Heavens Universe just for a chance.
Instead of focusing on unfeasible thoughts, Tianyi decided to be more productive. He had originally planned on allowing his inner universe to evolve naturally since it seemed to be the best option in light of his inability to control more than a portion of the inner universe. But now, he didn't think so. If he allowed his inner universe to operate on its own, an unnecessary amount of essence and qi would be wasted.
"He didn't forget about me, did he?" Daoyi asked no one in particular. She took a sip from the Liquorlight Gourd on her waist and then frowned.
She looked up and noticed that day had suddenly turned into night. Furthermore, the stars shone brighter. If before, there was a thin gauze separating the stars, now, the obstacle had been completely removed, allowing the starlight to cascade down on her.
Then, the stars' position shifted. It was gradual, and only some of them moved, but as time passed, Daoyi could see the formation of new constellations.
She saw a giant kun fish that exuded the Law of Space. Another constellation that took the form of a roc exuded the Law of Time. Together, they formed a constellation of a kunpeng, representing the Law of Spacetime.
At another corner, she saw a sword constellation exuding the Law of Lightning and reminding her of the Sword of Damocles.
Although they were incomplete, she also saw constellations representing fire, water, earth, wood, and metal as the Vermillion Bird, Black Tortoise, Yellow Dragon, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger.
Daoyi felt something resonate with her. Specifically, the Law of Death that she practiced. She turned her head towards the sources to see an embryonic constellation. The constellation had the upper body of a woman but the lower half of a snake.
At first, Daoyi thought it was a constellation of Nuwa, the creator of mankind—at least in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System—but the closer she looked, and the more complete the constellation became, she felt as if her guess was wrong.
"That's me?"
