The group of cultivators went up and flew outside the planet, where suddenly the sound of booming thunder echoed in space itself as the Thunder Bull carriage arrived to meet them.
A bull of golden fur arrived to them, its horns were wider than a giant eagle's wingspans and his whole build was sturdy and powerful looking. The bull snorted in derision as it struck its hooves several times on empty space causing ripples to spread as thunderous booms echoed with every step.
The carriage it carried behind it was mighty big indeed, decorated in all sorts of sculptured decorations of dragons and phoenixes, reminiscing of the golden age of the Imperial Family.
"A mighty beast," Spoke Zhang Tian.
"Indeed, and it seems that it hadn't reached full adulthood yet, it's still not able to exert its full potential," Master Rain replied.
"What about Lu, is he not coming?" Meng Hao asked.
"I suppose he isn't, it's too much of a risk for a man who washed his hands in a golden basin. For now it's just the four of us. Let's get on," Master Rain said as he rode on the carriage behind the bull.
Once seated, the rest of the group got in the carriage.
It was an open-roof carriage, where people can ride and still be able to watch the vast expanse and its beautiful stars. This Thunder Bull carriage was never meant to walk the land, only space.
"little Cabbage," said Master Rain as he was the only one who knew of the Bull's name. "Take us to the rim of the Fire Domain, near the western zone, there is a dead broken planet there that we wish to go to," Master Rain said.
The bull snorted loudly and then began moving.
"I suppose it knows the way if it understood you," said Dao Shen.
"This bull had traveled the galaxy long before any of us was born. It knows its way around the Vast Expanse more than anyone," said Master Rain.
"But I suppose at this speed, it'll take us years," Dao Shen sighed.
"I wouldn't say that if I were you," Zhang Tian smiled.
And it was true, the bull's ego was hurt after hearing those words. With another loud snort, and a couple more stomps on space itself, the bull began increasing its speed.
Sooner than five minutes, the Bull was already outside the solar system of the planet they were in, and it began increasing its speed more and more.
Thunder boomed with every step the bull took, and the stars looked like rays of light instead of massive globes of fire.
"I guess I'm wrong, I bruised his ego," Dao Shen laughed as he realized how fast the Thunder Bull really was.
"But isn't this speed and this loudness of the bull going to pull some unwanted attention, even I try and cross the Vast Expanse as calmly as I could," Dao Shen said.
"It was said, that the Thunder Bull was the ruler of the skies, it wasn't an exaggeration, these creatures are mighty and they're born and raised to rule and reign over space itself. Its mighty and strong, and if a creature believes themselves strong enough to corner them, they'll be met with the wrath of thunder and lightning falling upon them. Though this guy is just a Silver Horn Thunder Bull, he is still strong enough to cause a primordial fear in all the dwellers of space besides a few rare creatures," said Master Rain.
"Like the Primordial Serpent God?" asked Meng Hao.
"Yes, that thing is just absurd…"
"How come its here?" asked Meng Hao.
"We don't really know, it was here before the birth of the stars themselves, though many had theorized it isn't actually a creature of this world." Master Rain said.
"How come?" asked Dao Shen.
"Because it lives in a realm that's higher than ours, technically, it is the strongest cultivator of the Vast Expanse. It far bypassed the Emperor Rank, and I believe it took the Second Step…"
"I wish to learn more, care to explain?" asked Meng Hao.
"Indeed. You're a Saint Class, which is just a step higher than an Ascendant, Ascending, means to elevate oneself from the limits of heavenly Qi, and claim the heavens of a higher grade of energy to cultivate, the Saint Qi. But ascending doesn't mean that your body only has Saint Qi in it, it evolved but hasn't fully removed the shackles of Mortality. But once you're a Saint Class, you cut yourself from the weaker version of Qi, then begin fully imbuing your body with Saint Qi.
The King Class is an upper version of this. As you're able to use far greater amounts of Saint Qi to more destructive and creative purposes on a long range, that's where Dao Shen and Zhang Tian are in," Master Rain said.
"What about you, Master Rain," asked Meng Hao.
"I'm a step above, I'm an Emperor class, meaning that the usage of Saint Qi to me comes as naturally as breathing, I can sense it, control it, command it, and abuse it. It does what I wish and what I tell, it is bound by my will, not by my strength. It's not an easy stage to achieve because this stage isn't obtainable by just cultivating, otherwise the Vast Expanse would have more than the current ten or so Emperor Class cultivators."
"Ten? I suppose the Kings of the Four Domains and the Queen, that makes six if we add you, who are the other Four?" asked Meng Hao.
"There exists a few loose cultivators, who do not belong to anyone. One of them holds the Metal Key, but it's been a long since we last heard of him, he's an old man with an incredible obsession with books. It's sad that I've never met him, I would have had a good discussion about Dao with that man. The other is the current Ruler of the Galactic Alliance Society, he's their only Bastion against the other regions from coming at them. And then there is that old money-grubber foggy Bailu…"
"Who might that be?" asked Meng Hao.
"Oh, you might not know her, but she's the owner of the Black Tower. An entity that's made to trade, the biggest merchant company of the Vast Expanse, do you ever wonder why no one can ever go against the Black Tower? It's because of her. She's frightening, not because of her strength, but the power of gold. She can move planets and cause wars with a single request. Thus no one wants to even be on her bad side…"
"Who's the last?" asked Meng Hao, "That makes only nine."
"Du Shen," Master Rain said.
"That makes no sense, isn't he dead?" asked Meng Hao.
"No, his death has never been confirmed. So we really don't know if he had passed away or is just in hiding. Maybe he even left, but we can't know for sure. He just disappeared one day, and we have yet to understand where he went."
The group thought for a while about the mighty people existing in the vast expanse, and this made them think even harder about how far and high this step is.
"So, if the Emperor realm is that high, how come the serpent is above it?" asked Meng Hao.
"We don't know, but what we do know is that it has an energy within it that's not like anything we've seen before, it's far purer and more powerful than Saint Qi, but its not Saint Qi. We made some deductions on it being a type of energy that's born outside the Vast Expanse, or even a higher tier of cultivation. But we couldn't replicate it, we also believed that since the Vast Expanse itself does not have this type of energy, the serpent will be hard-pressed to survive without it, and thus lose its power, but it never lost an ounce of it, hell it even grew slightly stronger over the years. So we had the idea that serpent is sustaining its energy with the power of the planets themselves." Master Rain said.
"…"
Zhang Tian then interjected, "The scholars and savants thought that the source of the serpent's power lays in he planet's hearts. They are a culmination of concentrated energy, highly condensed Saint Qi if you will, but at the same time its still Saint Qi. The problem is, it's still saint Qi in the end, so what we believed was that the serpent was actually modifying the Planet Heart's structure, and creating a new type of energy, the only issue is, to confirm this…" Zhang Tian looked away and sighed.
"We basically need to be inside the serpent to see how it changes the structure of saint Qi to whatever energy it's currently functioning on, right?" asked Dao Shen.
"Exactly, it's not easy, so we kept trying, but nothing seemed to work, it's frustrating to be honest," he said
"I heard your father is close to reaching the peak of the Emperor Realm," Master Rain said
Zhang Tian smiled ruefully and said, "All thanks to your Eternal Blaze."
"Don't remind me, I had to go to hell and back for that," Master Rain grumbled several times over then sighed and said, "It didn't really matter anyway, I already improved upon my cultivation without it," said Master Rain.
"Wait, really?" Zhang Tian asked.
"Of course, I thought that the Eternal Blaze was what I needed to further understand the Dao of the world, but thanks to a side comment form Shen Bao, I was able to achieve enlightenment and reach the eight grade of the Emperor Realm," Master Rain said.
Zhang Tian frowned, "That's basically the same as mother…"
"No, though we're of the same cultivation rank, she'd still kick my ass. Anyway, I believe it's time we tell you all, the younger generation how hard it is and why is it so hard to reach the Emperor's rank. Perhaps our experience will give you some insights on how to reach it. So listen, and listen well…"
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