It took more than an hour for Damien to get his thoughts together. Once he did, he slowly sat up in the large bed he was sleeping on.
He already understood that he was safe. The first thing he did when he regained consciousness was spread his awareness. Damien's perception was extremely powerful from the beginning, making it incredibly easy for him to cover the entire Eclipse Sect within its scope.
'This place…where am I?' He wondered to himself. The last thing he remembered was battling the Fifth Primal Sovereign, and now, he was in this strange sect.
Most of the surrounding practitioners weren't even human. They had varying features, but the most common was a pair of snow-white wings on their backs. These people were from the Angel Race.
'Divine Realm?' He immediately thought. After ingesting both Alaric and the Primal Sovereign's memories, he had a basic understanding of the 9 Sectors. While the Primal Sovereign never involved himself with the people of these sectors, he traveled through them often enough to have a general understanding of them.
And with this understanding, Damien was quickly able to surmise his location. It wasn't too hard of a task,
Each of the 9 Sectors had its own dominant race. This was a fact set in reality, true regardless of where in the sector one was.
Essentially, one only needed to understand the predominant race around them to generally understand which sector they were in. Naturally, there were times when this measure was inaccurate, but it was mostly trustable.
'If I'm in the Divine Realm…' Damien's face paled. Being in a separate sector wasn't a problem, but the way he entered this sector was suspicious. How could he not worry about his home?
The Human Domain must've been in a precarious situation after so many of its experts were injured. While Damien felt some guilt for causing this calamity, his main focus was elsewhere.
He had once again left his wives alone. They'd spent plenty of time together before the Niflheim raid, but that didn't make him feel any better. Especially when he couldn't inform them of his departure before leaving them.
From the Divine Realm to the Human Domain was a long journey. Even while using cross-sector teleportation arrays, Parsiel was only able to reach his destination in 6 months or so.
And even this was only due to his special status. If an unknown individual like Damien wanted to use these arrays, he'd need to spend an exorbitant amount of money, money that he didn't have.
If he chose to traverse the distance without these gates, however, even tens of years wouldn't be enough time to reach the Human Domain.
Damien traced his chest. There, he could faintly feel Ruyue's soul fluctuations. At their current distance, this feeling had no meaning aside from sentimental value, but that was all Damien needed.
"I'm sorry for leaving again…" he muttered to himself. At this time, he truly could only think about Rose and Ruyue's faces. Even Elena flashed through his mind, but since she was on her own adventure, she likely wouldn't hear about his matters.
He was regretful. He didn't enjoy that he couldn't stand by their side as often as he'd liked to. But with the way he kept getting involved in dangerous situations, it was an impossible dream.
They were both geniuses of their generation. Even compared to Divine Realm geniuses, they were at the peak.
But they still couldn't match Damien.
He'd keep getting stronger, and while they ardently followed behind him…he was afraid they'd never grow to be able to stand by his side.
Damien shook his head fiercely. In truth, this was one of his greatest fears. He didn't want to stand at the top of the world alone. However, he knew that it wasn't something for him to think about.
He already knew his wives' talent, and he didn't doubt them in the slightest. Even if they couldn't match his speed, saying they could never reach the peak was a stretch. He wholeheartedly believed in their ability.
And in the worst-case scenario, when he reached that peak, he'd bring everyone he cared about with him. At that time, what would he have to worry about?
'Regardless, I'm stuck in the Divine Realm for now. Though…that might not be the worst outcome.'
The Dimensional Leaderboard was a concept he'd just found out about. From his understanding, it was some kind of ranking list as well as a booster.
The geniuses who were involved with the Dimensional Leaderboard would enter Mystic Realms, Challenge Gates, and other challenges set by the Dimensional Leaderboard itself. Depending on their performance, they'd be awarded the appropriate rewards.
These rewards spanned from the most common mana crystals to the rarest of heavenly materials, artifacts, pills, and anything else. The Dimensional Leaderboard's treasures were uncountable.
But this wasn't it. Aside from the benefits one gained in the Dimensional Leaderboard's trials, as long as a genius entered the top 1,000,000, they'd also be granted rewards based on their rank.
In essence, the Dimensional Leaderboard was a shortcut and a cheat code. This was Damien's assessment of it.
The path to gaining strength was even more streamlined than even the system made it. The geniuses of the other 7 sectors…were truly pampered.
Damien spat in derision. He couldn't associate with people who relied on crutches to gain stronger. It went against the core of his being. But at the same time, he knew he couldn't judge those geniuses without facing them himself.
'Crutches, huh…' Damien grinned to himself. 'Let's see how it feels to have the universe itself helping me gain strength.'
As Damien went to stand up, the room door opened. A human maid walked in, immediately yelping and dropping the bucket of water in her arms.
"Ah! You…you woke up?" She stuttered. Her eyes moved relentlessly as she tried to figure out where to look. A slight blush crept up her cheeks.
After all, currently, Damien's naked figure wasn't hidden from her vision at all!
This maid had been in charge of him since they left the Great Desolate, and had washed him plenty of times, but that was a different situation altogether. There was no way she'd feel any attraction to a corpse-like body regardless of its features.
But now, she found it hard to contain herself. In a world where humans were a minority, it was rare for her to see someone of her race so attractive.
And Damien's attractiveness had reached new heights after his Baptism. His features became more perfect, his muscles compact yet filled with power. Long black hair flowed down his back, contrasting and accentuating his ethereal purple eyes.
It could be said that after ridding himself of his stranger features, Damien's face became far more captivating. This little maid stood no chance.
As for Damien himself, he didn't pay any mind to the maid. After understanding the situation, he casually created a Celestial Star Palace core disciple robe out of mana and covered himself.
"You, where are we?" He asked the maid. Before anything else, he needed to understand his general position. The Divine Realm was extremely vast, after all.
The maid also began to calm herself down, replying, "w-we are in the Eclipse Sect. Our princess found you and your companion stranded in the Great Desolate and saved you, bringing you back here."
Damien's brow perked. The Eclipse Sect was too small for him to take notice of, but the latter half of her sentence was…
"Companion?" Damien quickly asked.
"Mm," the maid replied, confused. "When the princess found you, you were together with a woman."
Damien's face paled instantly. A woman? A woman willing to follow him to the Divine Realm? Who could this be except one of his wives?!
Damien didn't pay the maid any mind, immediately spreading his awareness. Within seconds, he'd teleported away from his room.
In his mind, his thoughts chaotically spun.
His body was extremely tough, and from the fact that he didn't gain any traits from the Primal Sovereign, he understood that the essence he devoured had protected him while he reached the Divine Realm.
But if the trip was so disastrous that such a vast amount of essence was needed to protect him, what kind of state would the woman who followed him be in?
His heart raced as he rushed to find out.
