"Screw it, I'll run in and finish the Patriarch before he finishes breaking through!" Lineir made to rush into the cultivation cave and fight all the Nero Sect disciples.

"NO disciple, it's not worth it. With me guiding you, this Nero Sect is simply a little pebble on your path, don't let it dig in your toe and break your ankle. Be patient and walk around, we can always come back and shatter it later!" Mei urged Lineir to reconsider. This move was hasty of him and brought on by the long period of waiting. While his plan might have worked, he would have had to fight through all the elders of the Nero Sect before reaching the Patriarch. Once the Patriarch of the Nero Sect had finished breaking through, Lineir would have been at a great disadvantage, possibly surrounded, and in enemy territory. It made no sense to take such a great risk.

"Sorry Mei, I wasn't thinking clearly, all this waiting is getting to me. I'll step back and wait and see what happens." Something incredible happened at that moment however.

BOOOOOM

"What the heck was that?" Lineir was baffled, a massive rumbling noise had shook the heavens and earth. It was as if a giant boulder had crashed down.

BOOOOOM

"Could the breakthrough of the Patriarch be causing this? His cultivation technique must be utterly amazing to generate such a loud noise!" Lineir tried to figure out what was happening. Now rumbles were coming through the ground, an earthquake?

"Don't be ridiculous disciple, there's no way the cultivation technique of this Nero Sect's Patriarch could be that amazing. No... something else is happening. Stay alert, this could be dangerous. Be ready to flee at any moment, though I don't know in which direction you should run.... THERE watch the sky!"

BOOOOOM

At this point, the Nero Sect elders were fleeing the cultivation cave which was collapsing. The Patriarch as well, was quickly running out, and conjuring his flying sword, having finished his breakthrough.

"Quickly, we must escape!

"Some great calamity is befalling us!"

"The Gods must be fighting!"

The elders were all yelling endlessly and milling about. However, soon they mounted their flying swords and prepared to flee. They turned to look at the Patriarch. In what direction should they flee?

Lineir was staring at them venomously when Mei's cry came. He looked up just in time to see a boulder, the size of a hill slam down on the Nero Sect elders and patriarch. In fact, they were only clipped by the edge, but they were undoubtedly smashed into pieces! Lineir gaped in awe at the sight, and then frightened began to back up.

"If something like that hits me, I'm done for, I don't know which way to flee though, that boulder just fell from the sky!" He looked up. Then he craned his neck higher. And higher. And higher. Finally, he said to Mei,

"Master.... is it me, or is there something in the sky?"

Mei however, didn't answer. Even she was amazed by the sight. Up above in the sky... was a humongous pillar! This pillar was so large that it engulfed the land in its shadow, and as Lineir watched, boulders rained down from still further above the clouds like rain. Bit by bit, more and more of this mystical pillar formed, from the sky down, as if it was descending from the heavens. It simply appeared! Where once was clear sky, now there was rocky stone. Finally, enough appeared that it touched the ground. Land and sky were conjoined by this massive pillar which seemed to support the very Heavens! Yet, this pillar was not perfectly straight. It seemed to wind around and around, in a perfect pattern which did not seem as if nature created it. Rather, it seemed more likely man made... yet on such a scale, no man could have wrought it. Rather... it was more likely... made by the gods!

On and on this pillar went, into the Heavens themselves. Across the lands, tales echoed across of this heavenly pillar, which from far away, could later on, according to legend, be seen even if one were to stand thousands of Li away, inside of a well, just by looking up. Every person began to speak, and rumors began to abound as to the origins and the nature of this thing.

"Look at it, only a god could make such a thing!"

"No, no god alone could make it, but perhaps many together could!"

"Surely only the gods could make such a thing, but what is at the top? Such a thing pierces the veil to the Heavens!"

Instantly, the talk of the land was on what such a pillar could lead to. Every sect whispered and whispered, and eventually every Patriarch and Ancestor of even the greatest sect knew of the pillar. Only those sleeping deeply after having failed to rise the last step into immortality were far enough removed from society to not hear and see the Sky Pillar! But of course... such a pillar, what is at the top?

"Surely it must be heavenly treasures which can only be dreamed of?"

Soon enough, word got out that the great Patriarchs of every major sect that had any face at all were mobilizing. To Sky Pillar! Within months, the greater sects began to approach the pillar, forces began to battle around, all hoping to force their way past the competition and come closer to the treasures within. But of course... there was more than just these for motives... Every Patriarch knew the real reason they had come. However, what they did not know, was that as they jockeyed for position, and scouted out the pillar, months earlier, one had already entered the race to the top. One lonely cultivator who had just begun his journey had long since entered the pillar from the beginning...