The sweet sounds of birds chirping.....

The trees and shrubbery dancing back and forth rhythmically in the gently wind.....

The sun at its highest point in the sky producing shortened shadows......

People milling about with their daily duties, the traders traded, the workers worked....

The rivers fed into the oceans which produced waves which were akin to a living being with its own temper.......

Armies moved forward to engage in battle, while healers healed the wounded.......

The fierce beasts fought for dominance over their territory in the wilderness......

Lovers laid together to produce the next generation.......

The world continued to rotate around the sun and moon, life continued at full speed because time would stand still for no man....well...except one........

Hartely had awoken at mid-day, his headache had died down and there was dried blood making a short slim track from his left nostril to his upper lip. He remembered what had happened before he passed out the night before and had been experimenting with the feeling for an hour now.

He had finally made that step across the thin line to be a 4th layer xiantian.

Hartley could make the world around him go monochrome at will for 2 seconds and then it would disappear, he had to wait another 10 seconds before he could cast it again but the things he could do in that 2 seconds got him excited.

He now had a gravity field which was 300 meters in radius around him, his physical body was now a 2nd layer xiantian, his star fist maxed out at level five but his star feet movement technique which he didn't use too much, was only at the fourth level.

In experiment Hartley tried to activate a gravity field only in the room and then turn the room monochrome, but it didn't work, or vice versa if he applied a gravity field, he could not turn the room monochrome. What Hartley was ignorant about was that this move that he called monochrome was in fact the buddings of the domain that the Patriarch had seen all those years ago.

This seed of a domain that Hartley had cultivated was only a 15 meters radius dome with him in the center, anyone caught in his domain, time would pause for them without their knowledge for a duration of two seconds.

Hartley could freely move around in there and where ever Hartley popped up in that dome, to the outside viewer it would seem like he had maneuvered at the speed of light without their knowledge.

Hartley went out and captured two dozen flies and brought them back inside his room, he scattered them around the room, then activated monochrome... the color bled from the world around him, and the room burst into vivid black and white detail, he stepped off using star feet movement technique.

Every time the sole of Hartley's foot touch the ground there was blue sparks created, he moved around as quick as he could, using his throwing knife to cut the wings off the flies that were frozen in position with their wings stationary, when the world regained its color, fifteen flies dropped to the floor squirming around and nine flies were still roaming around without a care in the world.

Hartley was a bit disappointed, he had neglected his star feet technique in favor of gravity steps, but gravity steps could only move in a straight line, to maneuver around the room and get to all the flies he had to use star feet movement, he had to use it more to get it to level five.

The difference between a early phase xiantian and a middle phase xiantian were immense, now Hartley could feel power surging through his body and he had also opened another ten pages in the blue star gravity sutra book.

The book instructed him how to get his physical body stronger by using blue star essence to cultivate his muscles and bones, he also learned how to manipulate gravity around his body without activating a gravity field so he could move on vertical surfaces as if it was level ground and extend his vertical jump distance then hover in the air for a couple seconds.

Hartley washed up and walked down the Stellar mountain with long shadows at his back, it was evening and he had been cooped up for the whole day, he stopped by at the three story building at the foot of the mountain and went to the second floor to have a look if any new missions were posted on the board.

Zhang Shisu wearing a red dress and her hair loose approached him and he greeted her as Sister Shisu, she blushed and greeted him politely, and began to ask where he went when he left the clan why he didn't even come back at nights, now Hartley had a awkward blush on his face as he tried to explain where he was and what he was doing at night...

He was saved by elder Lou Chingham who had entered the room with a stiff look on his face and told Hartley that elder Lou Chang wanted to have a meeting with him on the third floor.

Hartley said his good byes to Zhang Shisu and left with Lou Chingham, Lou Chingham kept quiet and had a plastic smile plastered to his face for the whole journey.

Lou Chingham assumed that Hartley had killed Lou Pangie and he was scared shitless, he was the first to discover Lou Pangie's dead body, Lou Pangie had his neck twisted to the back with blood running down the side of his lips, the scary thing was the fright and shock that was pasted onto Lou Pangie's face, there was a horrible smell when they tried to move his body because Lou Pangie had made a horrible mess in his robe.

The overbearing Lou Pangie had not died with a shred of dignity.

Lou Chingham was wary of Hartley's feelings towards him because he was the one Lou Pangie had sent to intimidate Hartley. They reached an office on the third floor and Lou Chingham breathed a sigh of relief as he showed him in.