Fog clung to the mountains like silk to the bone. Ling Aotian touched the morning sun rays with surprising grace, dispite his riggid mascular body.From his vantage point, he watched the sun rays dissipate, becoming pale and reluctant to cast any warmth across the craggy spires of the Ghostly Shadow Sect.
"Ooh, interesting."
He suddenly cast his gaze at the entrance of the sect, thousands of miles from his mountain peak. His divine sence spread like a silent tide, swallowing the whole land.His vision rippled through the sky like the surface of a disturbed pond.
"The feeling disappeared!"
He was stunned. He had been sure that he clearly felt a twist in space near the gate. A sure sign of the transportation formation activating. Yet it vanished without a trace.With disappointment, he retracted his divine sense.
Only to feel the odity once more.
This time,he was gentler.He allowed his vision to drift, like a leaf following the breeze of autumn. Natural ,smooth and effortless, a testament to his strong and overwhelming spirituality. His divine sense loomed atop the whole sect, then descended in a slow gracefully spiral, gaining momentum as it displayed the grandeur of the Ghostly shadow sect.
If one could fly unseen , like a ghost through the mist, the world below would unfold like a grand tapestry of the Dao.
From the sky high above, the sect was a labyrinth of dark stone halls, with ten Supreme mountains overshadowing thousands of peaks. Bellow, Shadowed bridges, ghostly weils and hanging gardens bloomed with grey blossoms. seemmingly straying and drifting in and out reality. Yet never ceasing to be corporal.
Ling Aotians divine sense swept through the ghostly garden, through ancient ghost pavilions suspended on cliffs. Eternal dusk lingering even at this hour of dawn.
As the sunlight broke through the pavilions, the lingering darkness seem to fade. Retreating as if they never even existed in the first place.
Below, bells tolled- deep, metallic and echoing through the mountain. Declaring the begining of the new sect year.
"I'll definitely become an inner disciple this year!!"
Yelled one disciple clad in yellow ashen robes, dashing across suspended bridges.
"I was only lacking two mortal seals last year!! This year is my year ! I must become a core disciple !! "
Declared another, ferrying spirit tablets while his companion bore incence burners and ceremonial weapons towards the Shadow Gate Arena.
Ling Aotian divine sense lingered there a bit.Amused by youthfull ambitions, taking in the relatively interesting bickering of the disciples.
Then a soft zither string rang out. Entrancing Ling Aotian's divine sense.
Looking at the gate, it was crackling with dark blue talismans as Supreme Elder Mo Lianyin stood in lotus posture atop a black zither suspended midair.
Each of her plucked notes,sent ripples through the minds of all inner and core disciples gathered at the Shadow Gate Arena. Beautifully puting them in a meditative zone.
Then her voice echoed, giving out her instructions, taming all present and putting them in a hipnotic trance.
"Let no stray thought survive. When the young arrive, they must hear only what we allow them to and what they find out themselves."
Snapping out of his trance, Ling Aotian lingered on the disciples a bit, before withdrawing hurriedly as he was already warned by the first pluck of the string.
This is because he was noticed by the charming Elder MO Lianyin.
He shifted his focus to the northern quadrant. At the peak of Harmonious Bloom Pavilion. One of the ten Supreme Mountains. There, veiled women tended to rare ghost Orchids with hands like wind and eyes like knives. Their ominous gentleness giving Ling Aotian the chill of a lethal weapon.
Their leader, Elder Mei Chunhua, stood beside a crystalline pool, watching petals fall on the water's surface as the talked about the Dao.
"There it is again. Why can't I find you?"
He felt it again. A tremble in Space time that only occurs during spacial travel. Feeling this he started examining the disciples there with his divine sense.
Only for a chill to creep up his spine
Ling Aotian shivered. Noticing that Elder Mei Chunhua was shooing him off. Giving him the cold shoulder.
Elegant and terrifying.
Trying to follow the spacial fluctuations, Ling Aotian transversed the entire sect. Just to end up empty handed.
"Where is this peculiar feeling coming from ?"
Ling Aotian wondered as he continued searching and investigating every single lifeform in the Ghostly shadow sect. Except some old monsters that is.
Suddenly
"Could it be ? "
He looked at a certain direction, towards a towering obsidian colored mountain fang :The Ying Throne Peak, where the Patriarch himself Gui ying had secluded himself.
Boom !!
An explosion erupted out of the peak of Ying Throne Peak but was quickly suppressed and dealt with by the grand formation leaving only a ripple of flame.
Ling Aotian opened his eyes wide, quickly withdrawing his divine sense from the Ying Throne Peak...
But no sooner had he retracted his divine sense than..
Boom !
Boom !
Boom !
Thirteen other loud explosions tore through the silence ,shaking the very foundation of the sect. Prompting the eyes of many old monsters of the sect to open in disbelief. With those of the ten mountain having more weird expressions of shock than the latter.
"Monster... !! Thirteen seal? Broken at once?! Truly... a heaven above the heaven . "
Ling Aotian muttered before covering his ears.He knew what was coming
"Ha ! He! He!.. I, GUI YING have awakened !!
Come great your sect leader !
Come !! "
No sooner had the Patriarch finished his maniachal laughter than thousands upon thousands of cultivators shattered the void to great him. Making the relatively new disciples of the sect exclaiming in shock.
Such foundation. So many Void Shattering monsters.. How could they not be shocked..??
The cultivation realms were divided into thirteen realms.
Spiritual Qi awakening
Qi Refining realm
Body and soul tempering realm
Core Formation realm
Essence seal realm
Void Shattering realm
Heaven merging
After heaven merging, a cultivator Ascends and follows through his cultivation of the six remaining realm to achieve Eternity.
Nirvarnah.
All realms have nine heaven stages complimenting nine heaven/ human seals. Barriers that heaven put on the human body to prevent humans and other mortal beings from following through the path of ascention.
Anyways back to the Patriach..
"Congratulations, congratulations ."
"Congratulations Patriarch ."
"Congratulations for being the first to merge with the heavenly dao in this lifetime ! "
Dozens of voices rang out. Followed by cupped fists and exergirated bows. Not hiding their reverend faces and excited expectation in their facials.
Of course Ling Aotian was among them. Not giving up the chance to flatter and please the Patriarch.
"O reverend one, O great one! Accept my sincere ..."
Before he could finish, he felt it again. The same indistinct fluctuations of space.
Ling Aotian glanced at the Patriarch. As expected, the Patriarch noticed it too. Joy vanished from GUI Ying's face, replaced by a grim, contorted expression.
Without a word, he vanished into the void.
Mind you, as he stepped into the void, not a single fluctuation or ripple followed.
That alone terrified Ling Aotian.
Moments later, Ling Aotian and several supreme and core Elders vanished. Appearing inside an emerald green hall swirling with ghostly Qi, interwoven into the very air.
"The Patriach's Ying Ghostly palace !! "
Exclaimed Ling Aotian as he looked in awe at the Sturn, riggid face at the core of the hall.
Steeling himself, he followed suit and bowed before taking a seat at the sides of the hall like the other elders.
All of them had eyes locked with the Patriach. Tension visibly intertwining with the Ghostly Qi as they awaited word.
The Ghostly Qi pulsed.
Then he finally spoke.
"It's time, it had descended!"
"The Venerate supreme Luck palace has appeared!"