Somewhere within the vast expanse, a spatial rift seemed to form.
Rifts in space are not an unusual occurrence. And cultivators usually make sure to steer clear of them. Space itself is already dangerous to travel, but spatial rifts also hold another space inside them. A world where Qi, is nonexistent and where nothing can survive. Or so many would think.
The spatial rift opened up and from within it, a completely naked man came out.
This person's body was impeccable in every sense. A divine body made for cultivation. And the Yang Qi it exuded was far purer than anything that has ever been seen before. It was actually so pure that it brought the attention of several cultivators who were treading along this lonely path in space.
Four cultivators moved toward the source of this pure Yang Qi thinking that a treasure had manifested itself. And what they saw was a person whose entire body was exuding a rich pure Qi from it.
Greed was obvious in the eyes of one of these cultivators, and since this man who appeared seemed to be unconscious.
"Brothers, I'm willing to hand over every treasure in my possession for the chance of obtaining that body!" he said.
The other three thought carefully about this proposition because the man who spoke was extremely rich. And powerful that if they were to fight him, at least a couple of them will die before they turn victorious.
They all knew that fighting among themselves for this body will end up in their loss, and if they didn't act quickly, another group of cultivators might come here.
"We agree," spoke the other three.
Just then, the greediest of the bunch approached the body in order to obtain it, thinking it was nothing but a corpse. But the moment that man touched the body of this person, he was immediately turned to cinders.
The other three were dumbfounded, how come a body has such pure Yang Qi, enough to actually turn an Ascendant to cinders the moment it touched it?
This power, this body holds many secrets, and it clearly holds a lot of power… it would be a shame to give it up.
Another of the remaining three approached the body and began using sealing formation to stop the Yang Qi from the body. Yet whatever formation he tried was turned to cinders.
The other two came to help, and they even tried to refine this body using their own refining treasures. Yet, nothing survived the burning Qi from this body. It was absurd to an unimaginable degree.
But suddenly, due to so many disturbances, one of the body's fingers twitched.
"Hold up, I think… it's still alive!" one of them said.
"Are you stupid, didn't you notice the remains of Rift Energy, that thing was spat out from a spatial rift, there is no way anything can live inside a spatial rift, or are you just saying that to scare us away for you to get the body yourself?"
"No, I swear, I saw its finger twitch," he said.
"That's a corpse, it has no signs of vitality nor can I sense its soul, it's a treasure imbued with yang Qi, it could probably be a postmortem twitch."
The three then proceeded to ignore that simple twitch of a finger. And resumed their refining.
As they gathered their Qi to fully refine the corpse, the twitch from earlier became more apparent. Even if they had all noticed it this time, they were already halfway through their refining and couldn't stop.
The twitch became a jerk, and suddenly the brows of the corpse moved up and down before its eyes opened up.
Eyes as bright as an ignited coal opened up wide and then a breath was taken.
In that breath, it wasn't air that was absorbed because there is no air in space. But it was Qi, spatial Qi, pure inundated chaotic Qi.
The three cultivators had realized that they had probably messed up big time with an attempt at refining a living creature, especially if it was so powerful while it was only unconscious, but now that it had awoken. They will all die if they don't flee.
Yet before they could even think of fleeing. The world around them turned red.
"What in Heavens's name is this!" one of the three cultivators spoke as he shuddered at the sight.
It was bright red, and it was cloudy, how could clouds be in space? There was only one way for that to happen.
"H-heavenly Tribulation!" the three had come to the realization that this body had just crossed the boundaries of mortality and now had achieved Ascension.
Not only that, there was something else within the clouds.
"B-brothers! That's the Mortal Severing Blade! This person hadn't even crossed the mortal divider!"
This meant one thing, that this person in front of them had jumped so many stages of cultivation without even crossing the Mortal Divider. And now all of them were coming at him at once. Not only that, since these three were in the vicinity, they too will suffer the Heavenly Tribulation of this person.
And so the skies roared.
***
Within one of the largest palaces on the main Wind Realm planets was a woman who was humming a cheerful tune as she was looking at a mirror.
"Servant Mao," spoke a woman in white robes.
"Yes, young lady," the man who had been inflicting untold torture upon Shen Bao had arrived to his mistress's demand.
"How do I look?" she asked as she twirled around him, she had worn one of her most expensive robes made from the hair of a Pixi Queen and the leather of an ancient Imoogi.
The old man clapped with joy, "Like a princess, young lady," he said.
"Good, good, this should at least pique Lord Zhang's interest. Well at least if our present fails to do so," she said.
"Oh worry not, I know for a fact that the Heavenly Wind Realm despises the Poison God, your idea of presenting that person to Zhang Tian as a gift is something, not even this old man had thought of!" he said.
"Yes, I know that's why I'm the heir to my house. Anyway, has there been any change?" she asked.
He shook his head, "It's been five years. And he is still as stubborn as the first day. None of the other cultivators had managed to survive beyond a couple of months, to think a monster with such willpower can exist. I'm truly impressed," he said.
"You get impressed by the simplest things, are you sure you weren't going easy on him, afraid of breaking your toy?" she sneered.
"Hah, on the contrary, his eyes were so defiant that it made me even go beyond my normal means, it will be a bit saddening to hand over such a precious…toy, to lord Zhang, but, if it's for my mistress's happiness, I'm willing to give my life if it is of any worth," he said.
"You're such a loyal servant, to think that you'd actually give up fifty years of your lifespan just to catch that person for me," she said.
"My life is all in the hand of my lady, though I wanted to capture his mount for you, it was just too fast," he said.
"That indeed was a fast mount, I've never seen anything like it, it would have also been a good present to Lord Zhang," she said.
"I wish I could have captured it for you, but whatever that person had summoned had blocked my spatial interference to grab it, I could only bring that wretched man. Still, the rest of those children are unable to do much, even if they go back to their respective territories, they can't do much, since no one is foolish enough to side with one of Du Shen's Acolytes." He said.
"True, and giving Lord Zhang one of his acolytes as a reward is a great merit. I would have been gleeful to hand over the others that you had captured before but they all broke too soon, but this one thankfully survived long enough to the day of Lord Zhang's Royal Procession. I'm sure he'll claim the hems of lordship after today," she said.
"Yes, we all believe to, especially since even the Queen had been on bad terms with the second price, if we cling to the first prince we can surely rise to the level of the heavens," he said.
"Don't worry about that, it is my duty to woo the lord, and I'm more than confident in my beauty and in my present, It'll be impeccable, not a single person would expect such a grand gift for the lord, I would be the only one to receive his attention tomorrow," she said.
The old man clapped, "Indeed my lady, then, I'll go ahead and check up on our present," he said.
"Go, and make sure that all preparations are ready," the young lady said as she was finished powdering her face in preparation for the 'grand day'
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶