"What's your name?" Standing up, Alexander waited for the woman's answer with leisure.

"Why are you not answering? I don't mind calling you slave number one if you don't-"

"Luna! My name is Luna sir." Understanding her potential fate, Luna had no choice but to rush her introduction.

"Alright... Well then, why don't you lead the way already?" Waving at Luna, Alexander stayed in place, waiting for her to start moving.

"Ah... Ah! Yes sir!" Rushing ahead, the woman ran through the forest.

'What an airhead...'

A few hours later, the woman stopped in front of a random mountain side.

Walking to it, she pressed her hand on its rocky yet somewhat smooth surface.

Suddenly, a part of the mountain side started to move, as if a door sliding higher and higher.

Left behind, a passageway clearly carved by someone or something could be seen, some faint light visible into its depths.

"It's here sir!" Not waiting for Alexander, Luna resumed her forward momentum.

'Let's see what this place has in reserve for my treasury.' With high hopes for cultivation resources, Alexander followed closely behind.

Barely a minute later both Alexander and Luna found themselves stopped by traps.

"Sir, this is the deepest I have ever reached! After this spot, the traps are still active, and I don't have the strength to deal with them!"

Narrowing his eyes, Alexander took the lead, triggering a dart trap from the wall.

Hitting his Qi shield, the metallic dart was blocked successfully.

'She is a first stage Grand Gravitational Realm cultivator while this single dart had enough power to rival a peak Grand Gravitational Realm cultivator... I can see that she isn't lying... yet.'

Harrumphing, Alexander passed through the large stone corridor with ease, triggering every trap on his path, all of them useless against him.

Now an hour into the corridor, they could finally perceive its end, some light at the end of the tunnel, literally.

A doorway in sight, they passed through, a giant stone dome the new sky.

A few hundred meters away, a giant platform could be seen, with nothing on it, its surface completely flat and smooth.

Excited, Luna failed to contend herself, running straight to the platform ahead.

Walking to the middle, she stopped.

Ignoring the wrath of the room, spawning multiple puppets on the platform, Alexander spread out his Divine Sense.

Casually strolling in circle, not lending Luna's cries of help his attention, he managed to find the many buried treasures.

'Around three chests, a library and a few artifacts...'

Luna currently being butchered, she did not have a chance to fight back as a dozen or so puppets at the Cloud Immortal Realm ambushed her.

Waving his hand, Alexander's gust of Celestial Qi utterly crushed each puppet, his power in a different league all together.

'There are also some refining materials, I still did not use my Fleeting Dreams, and now that I am a Blooming Lotus Realm cultivator it kind of has no use...' In a pinch, Alexander decided to take the best refining materials and upgrade his custom poleaxe at an amazing artifact refiner's workshop.

Ready to start looting, he waved his hand once more, this time however, with much force, sending the pavement below flying, pieces of rock crashing everywhere.

Walking leisurely, he first took out a chest surrounded by a handful of artifacts.

'And the grand prize of this first chest is...'

Suspense now present, Alexander's sarcastic tone completely cancelled it. Since his Divine Sense could catch these treasures, it could also inspect them.

'...a sword, wow, I was not expecting that~.' Placing the perfected grade Celestial-Tier sword away, he also swooped the surrounding ones, only at the high and mid grade.

Storing the chest itself as well, Alexander resumed, stopping another two times, opening two other chests placed along lower graded artifacts.

'Both also at the perfected grade...' Throwing a powerful halberd and a powerful shield inside his internal world, Alexander slowly lifted his leg.

Celestial Qi churning around it, he stomped below with brutality. What ensued was a loud explosion under his foot, upheaving the room.

Dust clouding his vision, he swept it away with ease.

'Even though these rocks are stronger than they look I still managed to utterly destroy them... Indeed, the Blooming Lotus Realm cannot be compared to the Cloud Immortal Realm, and is definitely not comparable to the previous major realms!' Jumping into the newly formed hole, Alexander landed a few meters below, inside a library.

Browsing through some books, he could not help his mind from drifting.

Thinking back, he realized how much his life experience helped him, starting from the Celestial Harmonization Realm, he could barely move dirt with his strongest move, often wondering how mortals lived in this place. However, it only took him a few decades to breakthrough again and again, paving his way up with blood and corpses. In the time some took to breakthrough a couple of stages, Alexander had managed to breakthrough almost ten.

'This is why the cultivation world is so much better than Earth, in here, we humans are not restricted by ourselves. What people on Earth thrived for, here it can be achieved, what they dreamed about, I can not only do, but also beat. While the dangers are there, life is fair throughout, since for ten deficits, one benefit in any shape will also happen. Life always took at least ten times the effort to obtain something.'

His conscious regaining a speck of clarity from his subconscious' alert, he read with lucidity a title from a book within his grasp.

'Hmm~? Ten Evils To Fathom The God, is this a cultivation technique? The title is a bit boring...' Analyzing it for a few hours, Alexander threw it away before continuing in his search, countless books left to appraise.

'A cultivation technique with sacrificing virgins, do I look like I do dumb rituals? If it was sacrificing ten Star Dragons then maybe...'

...

'Why is this technique using pebbles as the foundation?'

...

'Who would remove their eyeball and eat it to cultivate immortality less efficiently than with dogshit techniques? Some of this shit doesn't even need to be kept, is this library's owner a fucking weirdo? Does he enjoy collecting books beyond the realm of unorthodox?'

Now a day into searching, Alexander wanted to simply burn this place down, most books he appraised utter nonsense.

'I'm keeping this one!' Alexander, as if inheriting the owner's hobby, stored a peculiar book that gave him impulsive laughter.

'Hahaha! What the fuck even is this?! Path Of Defiance, the title looks so normal, so why is this about gurgling mud, eating dirt as well as spitting on beasts and monsters to gain power? If I had cultivated this, would I have spat on the Tyrant Belial? Man, what in the world...'

Finally, two days later, Alexander had finished inspecting the library.

'The haul was clearly not worth the effort... The only good book I have is the one filled with random information.'

Having spent three days inside, Alexander was ecstatic at the thought of resuming his journey.

Five months later, Alexander was still nowhere near the Demonic Land Region, with much more left to fly through.

"Dun dun dun dun~!" Playing music inside his mind, Alexander could not stop sound from escaping, somewhat singing the beat along.

A giant tiger beast with wings appearing out of nowhere, it jumped at the flying Alexander with a loud roar, who in response casually struck with his palm forward, immediately causing a giant palm depression to form on the tiger's fur and flesh. Its body multiple times bigger than Alexander's was sent crashing down into a forest.

As if unaware of what had just happened, Alexander was still humming and singing.

Two months later, Alexander's lucidity took over for a quick mental photograph of the scenery ahead.

'Dun dun~ Oh! A giant ocean! Dun dun dun~!' Dancing mid air as he flew by high above the sapphire blue water, Alexander still paid attention, sort of.

Watching with incredulity as a young man with silver hair passed by at insane speed while dancing some weird moves, countless marine species felt confused, especially since the random young man was actually a powerful Blooming Lotus Realm powerhouse, almost never seen in Tuzim.

A Soaring Beast whale looking at a giant shark, it spoke.

"Brother Shyrkus, can you feel this human's power? I can feel yours, but not this man's... Aren't you a Cloud Beast, can you feel it?"

Trembling, the giant shark meekly nodded.

"I can! This man is clearly beyond me and any of the Four Greater Seas, he is probably the equivalent of a Lotus Beast!"

Freezing from fear, the whale started to swim in the other direction with haste. Following it, the giant shark rushed with speed, soon surpassing the whale.

Admiring the beautiful ocean far below complemented with the clouds far above covering the sky, some sunlight passing through, not enough to lit up the somewhat shaded ethereal tunnel of peace, its width seemingly infinite, Alexander was enchanted, his dance moves getting more energetic by the minute.

Such scenes of mystical sights truly gave Alexander a sense of accomplishment. Enjoying the many biomes and fantastic natural constructs everywhere he passed, from a peaceful shaded ocean to a forest of trees reaching an astonishing height, floating islands or even snowy mountains piercing the clouds, the wind lifting its snow everywhere around, causing it to fall everywhere in rhythm.

Four years later, Alexander, still looking as young as ever, stared ahead in contemplation.

'Fuck it! I'm very curious about this!'

Having passed through many lands of beauty, another one had made its way into his field of view. Far ahead, atop a mountain surrounded by clouds below, under the clear sky devoid of obstruction, a humongous golden castle stood tall.

Feeling the aura it emanated, Alexander was surprised.

'I'm getting closer to the Demonic Land Region, but still... This aura is comparable to the Cloud Immortal Realm, and the peak of that realm as well! Whoever made this was clearly a step away from a breakthrough, maybe this person was once a Blooming Lotus Realm cultivator or beyond, somewhat decreasing in strength later on...'

'Still, the energy I'm feeling only amounts to that, even if there is a Blooming Lotus Realm power inside, if it isn't beyond the second stage then I'll be just fine!' Flying toward the golden castle at full speed, Alexander felt excited at the potential entertainment within.