"You all are here, so let me will ask you," Nixeno said as he looked at all peak powerhouses of the 9th realm.
"Should we open this gate or not?"
Nobody spoke for a while and just observed the mysterious ancient gate.
"Well… We have no choice but to open it,"
"Yeah, open it."
"We have seen almost everything, so when there's something new, our curiosity is boosted abnormally."
"Haha, right. There's no choice but to open this gate, whatever damned thing it brings."
"Heh, now you understand my pain," Nixeno snickered after that hearing. "I also can't help but act upon my curiosity."
"Humph, you damn cat. Don't forget that idiom, hahaha. Curiosity killed the cat."
"Bastard, that idiom doesn't apply to what I did previously and what we are doing now."
"Alright, stop the talk and open the gate."
"Let me do that," said Olethros as he flashed a demonic smile.
As he floated towards the gate, the katana hanging at his waist trembled slightly.
"Don't be scared, hahaha."
Olethros unsheathed his katana and held it in his left hand before pushing the gate with his right hand.
The other Exotic Demons and powerhouses were prepared to take any action if something dangerous appeared out of the gate.
However, a few seconds passed, but the gate didn't open.
"What are you doing? Open the gate, Olethros."
"Cough… I am doing it," Olethros frowned and exerted his full strength.
Alas, the gate didn't even budge.
"How long are you going to take to open that gate?"
"Shut up! I am doing it."
Olethros put back his katana and pushed the gate with both hands, even using his powerful energy and empower his hands.
By now, everyone that Olethros couldn't open the gate.
Naturally, if he couldn't open it, 90% of them wouldn't be able to open it even if they tried.
"Tsk, we need to push together."
Olethros gave up as he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
"Let's attack the gate instead of pushing it," A human wearing a purple wizard outfit and hat spoke.
"Yeah, let's do that."
"I agree."
As such, everyone backed off and started attacking the gate.
"Oh? Something is happening!"
The gate was shining the more they attacked it.
"It's absorbing the energy of our attacks… this must be unbelievably tough to have the capability to absorb our attacks."
"No shit, Sherlock."
…
They constantly attacked the gate for an hour before, finally, they heard a crack that rang pleasantly in their ears.
Everyone stopped attacking after hearing that crack and observed.
"Hmm? I definitely heard a crack sound, but where is the crack?"
"I can't find it."
"Maybe we shouldn't have stopped the attack?"
They heard a loud crack sound, but there was not a single damage on the gate!
"Wait, let me try to open it now," Olethros said as he thought of something and arrived in front of the gate before pushing it.
*Thadaaa!*
The gate opened!
Olethros stopped exerting his strength after that slight push since he didn't want to open it.
Alas, the gate was automatically opening!
Olethros quickly backed off. "It's opening automatically!"
In a few seconds, they saw the gate opening fully, and at the other side of the gate, they saw an old man with a long white beard sitting on a black lotus!
The scenery around him was all black, with white clouds below the black lotus.
As everyone gazed at the old man and tried probing him, his eyes opened!
"Bastards, you took too long opening this gate!" The old man shouted with anger in his eyes.
As he spoke, the sound of his voice took a physical manifestation of angry waves of destructive flames that came out of the gate before spreading in over a hundred-kilometer-wide area!
*swoosh*
The old man disappeared from the other side of the gate and appeared outside in front of five Exotic Demons.
In quick succession, he hit the head of all five Exotic Demons before snorting, "You were birthed by the world of nine realms and gained the status of Exotic Demons to unveil the mystery of these ancient runes! What the fuck were you doing instead of collecting runes?!"
"Ouch, that hurts."
"Would you mind telling us about your esteemed identity?" Said an angel with golden wings as she adopted a somber expression.
The old man that appeared was more powerful than them! He was in a completely different realm of power!
But they were supposed to be the peak! So who was this old man, and how did he gain the power exceeding the peak of the 9th realm?!
"I am called Shiron Death, and you can call me Senior Shiron. Before I explain to you about the dire situation of our world, I have to do something," Shiron said before he closed his eyes for a few seconds.
After five seconds, he opened his eyes with a reddish-golden glint in them and disappeared into a portal that manifested in front of him.
"Where did he go?"
"He seems to know about you five. What's the matter?" a draconic man asked as he looked at Nixeno, Olethros, and others.
However, Nixeno, Olethros, and the other three Exotic Demons were just as confused.
They'd never met that old man before!
"Shit!"
Someone cursed.
"H-He destroyed Gravel Realm!"
"What?!"
"Yeah, you can check yourselves. The entire Gravel Realm is no more. Now, no one can go to the Gravel Realm. The entire world structure of it just vanished."
"No need to worry. I didn't destroy the Gravel Realm but disconnected it from the world of nine realms. It was not the part of this world in the first place, but became a part when it was birthed near our world."
The old man Shiron appeared and explained them.
"But why did you do that?"
"If I didn't do that, then in the future, someone would've destroyed it," Shiron said with a solemn expression.
Remembering something, he quickly asked, "Did any of you discover something resembling a mysterious wheel?"
"Yes, we did," Nixeno nodded. "It's in the Black Limbo."
"Black Limbo? What's that?" Shiron asked with a frown. When he was here, there wasn't any place called Black Limbo.
"It's a small region of weak space whose laws are very chaotic. Sometimes, mysterious things appear when I use my space matrix power," Nixeno said with a grin.
'Weak space, chaotic? I see. It must have formed after that apocalyptic event,' Shiron thought before he looked at the Exotic Demons. "Since you found that wheel, then you must have seen some memories and sceneries, not of this world. Lead me there. I'll explain to you all about the incoming doom."
…
As seconds turned into minutes, minutes into hours, and hours into days, Arkhen had an adventure of a month…
Of the first fifteen days, he roamed with Lady Rong, Gerald, Yosin, Sherly, and Tiffani as he destroyed various organizations, clans, some powerful families, and such.
In those fifteen days, he reached the peak of the 9th class and broke through to the 10th class.
Once he reached the 10th class and unlocked his path of star, he went on an adventure of fifteen to walk his path of stars and finally got the peak of 10th class.
"Where are you going upon entering the 2nd realm? For one, I have your place secured in the Cherry Blossom Mountain sect," Lady Rong said.
"And another option is to join our empire," Yosin said with a cheeky grin.
"Heh, I planned to join when I didn't know about the power progression in the 2nd realm. But now that I know that power progression of the 2nd realm is simple and straightforward, I am going to blaze through it with my wives," Arkhen said with a smile.
"So, you won't join any force?" Tiffani asked with raised eyebrows. "Sasha is with your wives, right?"
"Sasha is mine now," Arkhen said with a calm smile. "If you and your father want to meet her in the 2nd realm, then I will take her to you."
"Well, my father was holding back for some small work. He had already finished his path of stars, so when he found out that Sasha went to the 2nd realm, he ascended to the 2nd realm a month ago," Tiffani said with a wry smile.
"Alright, then, let's ascend," Sherly said with a grin. "We have finished our path of stars and reached the peak. After ascending, we can move with Arkhen for a while until he meets up with his wives, and then all of us can go to our Empires. From there, Arkhen can move whenever he wants."
"That's fine," Lady Rong said with a smile. "You don't need to visit Cherry Blossom Mountain sect in the 2nd realm, but be sure to visit it in the 4th realm or 5th realm."
"Sure," Arkhen said with a nod. 'But according to my current main quest, this world of Nine realms is going to get fucked up.'
[Indeed]
…
After taking a rest for a bit, Arkhen, Yosin, Sherly, and Tiffani started flying towards Firmament of Stars.
They went through the same process and manifested their unique doors in front of them after arriving at the ceiling.
"By the way, I can instantly reach my girls via a unique teleportation method. So, we'll go to your empire from wherever they are," Arkhen said before he entered his doors.
Gereld, Yosin, Sherly, and Tiffani became a bit speechless at how Arkhen casually just spoke about his unique teleportation method.
"What kind of teleportation method can allow him to reach his wives directly?" Sherly asked with a confused expression. "He needs to know their location and other things, or how else would he open the portal?"
Tiffani shrugged. "Who knows? Anyway, he already showed us things that were not possible."
"Haha, I have seen him teleporting something far out of his reach to directly in his hand," Gerald said as he remembered about that incident where he, Meya, and Arkhen were kidnapped.
"Yeah. No use thinking about how he will do that," Yosin nodded with a wry smile. "Alright, let's go, or we'll get left behind by him."
The four of them also entered through their respective doors.
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