Chapter 1: From Nowhere

I open my eyes and stare at the silk curtains around my bed. A soft female voice comes from the side of the bed, “Good morning darling, did you sleep well?” It was my wife.

My wife was an extreme beauty. Her eyes were a blue with a light golden color speckled in. Her hair was a dark purple color. This was not her original hair color, it was something like a fiery red before, but for some reason she dyed it using special methods that she knew. Her chest was fairly large, I refuse to guess what size it was… well for… um… safety reasons. Her legs were long and smooth. Her skin was a snow white. A beauty that could wage wars on earth and shatter the heavens.

I lightly laugh, “Of course I slept well. I had a longer than normal day yesterday.”

I sit up in the bed and stretch my arms and legs. I swing my legs out from under the heavy blanket, and put them into some cotton slippers that were on the ground. I slowly stand up and walk towards a nearby window. The window looked down into the city, the city had thousands of people already in the streets.

Many people were not cultivators of any kind. They were just your average person, nothing more, nothing less. The castle guards were all at least at the fifth realm, and for some weird reason, the man in charge of security set up this castle with ‘Battle maids’. They were like maids in every way, including the outfit, however, they were at least at the sixth realm. The head maid was at the seventh realm.

My wife puts her hand on my shoulder, “Come on darling, stop worrying about useless things, you arranged to go meet with your father today.”

I sighed deeply and placed my head in my hands, “I forgot I was going to go do that. I wonder how long it will take to travel to his castle over the ocean.”

My wife just smiled continuously, “It shouldn’t take you more than a couple hours.”

I walk towards the closet with all my clothes, “There hopefully won’t be any conflicts. I haven’t seen him since he kicked me out of there saying that I was truly trash.” A weak smile creeps across my mouth, “Hopefully he’s nicer than I remember him being.”

My wife hugs me from behind, “Am I allowed to come along?”

I gently laugh and turn around to face her, “Of course not. What if something happened while we were out? For example, someone stronger than me appeared? Maybe my father will try to harm you? I can’t let that happen to my wife. I would be an embarrassment to men everywhere.

She just sighs as she starts to change into her royal dress, “Shall I go handle daily affairs within the castle then?”

I nod with a smile, “That would be awesome. I’ll find you to come say bye before I leave.”

She shakes her head slowly, “No need, I’ll just leave you to your business. I’ll say bye to you now and let the guards know that you are heading out.”

I kiss her on the lips, “I’ll just do that then. I’ll see when I get back either tonight or tomorrow morning.”

She smiles and walks out of the room with a domineering aura. I slowly put on some travelling clothes. I wonder if the castle will be fine while I’m gone. Whatever, doesn’t matter. My wife will take care of these small things. She is in the ninth realm, c ranked, but it is still the ninth realm.

I grab the small crystal that those strange beings gave me. I put some power into it daily, it keeps accepting it. There are certain walls within the memories that the crystal has. The crystal is like a living being that knows everything that goes on around it. Putting my own internal energy into the crystal, the walls that block the memories of the crystal slowly erode. The next wall is only a couple days from being eroded.

I attached a chain to the crystal so that I could wear it around my neck. Even my wife does not know of this crystals existence. I fear that if anyone were to know of the crystal, many people would try to take it from me.

I walk to the roof of the castle and look out over the city. Many people were flooding the streets even though the sun had only been in the sky for an hour or so. They were going from store to store to do their morning shopping. People who were not martial practitioners needed to have three meals a day and lots of water. As you entered into higher realms you would be able to eat and drink less and less daily.

I go to the other side of the castle and see the practitioner side of the castle town. There were various medicinal shops for low level practitioners. There were many herbs that could slightly speed up training for a short period of time. The herbs usually were quite common for the lower quality herbs, like the ones that practitioners under the fourth realm used.

I take a deep breath to calm myself, then circulate my internal energy. After warming up my energy, I gathered some of it underneath my feet and stepped into the air. This technique was called ‘Ascension’.

It is one of the easiest skills to use that the crystal had given to me. The ‘Ascension’ technique only allowed a person to travel as fast as they could move on the ground. The ‘Ascension’ technique was thus paired with ‘Wind Merger’. This technique allowed you to become one with the wind and move through the wind as if you were the wind itself.

If ‘Wind Merger’ is trained to a high enough level it allows a person to travel thousands of kilometers within an hour.

I was travelling along the land with the two techniques to go and visit my father. Well… I have no way to tell if it was the truth when he said he was all those years ago, but that doesn’t matter.

I sent a trustworthy servant to tell my father that I was coming to visit him. He should be quite old by now. I wonder what realm my father is in. If it is the ninth realm he should easily live for another fifty years.

Whatever, it doesn’t matter too much if he will live for much longer, I lived independently until I became the supreme emperor. I fed myself and was able live without relying on others. Well, except those mysterious people.

Those mysterious people. Who are they? Better question, what are they? I guess it doesn’t matter too much. I just have to protect those important to me right now. My wife and my citizens.

I start to see the green walled castle in the distance. The castle just calmly floated on top of the water like a fallen leaf from a tree floating on a still pond.

I arrive in front of the castle. I decided to fly down and appear to just walk on the water, I did not want too many people around here to know my true power for safety reasons. As far as I know, only those who are wind mages can fly. It would take too long to explain if my father, maybe, if he thought that I was a wind mage.

A man shouts from on top of the castle, “Who are you? Explain yourself or we will use force.”

I raise my arms, “I’m not here for trouble. I am the supreme emperor of the mainland, I just came here to see the man in charge of this castle.”

The guard backs away from the visible edge of the castle. The doors to the castle open, and a man in a purple colored robe with golden ornaments on it comes from the doors. It was a man who had not aged well. His hair was as white as snow, all the skin that was showing on his body was wrinkled.

The old man spreads his arms, “Welcome home my son.”

I smile, “I’m just here for a visit. I have to go back to my wife at the very latest of tomorrow morning.”

The old man smiles, “Not an issue, come on in, we can relax and catch up on what has happened in recent years.”

I nod slowly and follow the man into the castle. He leads me to a room with a large table with nothing on top of it. He sits down and gestures at another chair at the opposite side of the table, “Sit down, we have a lot to catch up on as father and son.”

I nodded slowly, “Well, you say you’re my father, but where is your proof?”

The old man just shrugs his shoulders, “Like I said all those years ago, I have no proof. You’ll just have to trust me.” He readjusts in his chair and puts his left leg over his right, “I heard that you became the first supreme emperor.”

I nod while scratching my head, “Well, yeah. It’s nothing to big though. Magic spells have zero effect on me because if they even come near me, they are instantly dispelled. The martial emperor was harder to defeat because he was extremely skilled in his mastery of his arts.”

The old man laughs, “That’s interesting. So what realm are you in?”

I give a light laugh, “I’m A ranked in the ninth realm, I have been at this rank for about twenty years.”

The old man’s tone gets suddenly serious, “Hey son.”

The old man’s tone slightly startled me so I reply, “Y-Yeah?”

He gives an evil smile, “Give me the position of emperor!” He lunges out of his chair. A small dagger had appeared in his hand, it was aiming directly for my throat.

I use the skill ‘Wind Merger’ to quickly move away, “Oi. There’s no need to get so aggressive over something small like this. Why do you even want to become the emperor?”

“Do you not know of the power that the title of ‘emperor’ holds?” The old man lunges again.

I dodge to the side again, “Well yeah. Most people will easily bow down and those who don’t will be mobbed by those who do.”

The old man laughs as if sanity was something out date, “You haven’t tried seducing women, have you!?”

I laugh while continuing to dodge the crazed old man, “Well… no. I don’t see the need. I have a loving wife and to be frank, the job leaves no time for playing around. Women also aren’t toys for playing with. They are people you know.”

“Not toys!? You must be joking! Those below me are all toys, even you!”

I stop in place as the old man lunges at me. I stop the blade with two fingers, “If I’m a toy, then why am I so strong?”

The old man lets go of the knife and punches towards my stomach, “You’ll see!”

As his fist was about to hit me I condensed energy to block the attack. If one were to describe the scene it would look like someone had thrown red gel at a wall. The old man’s fist disintegrates as it comes into contact with the surface. The condensed energy was stronger than a piece of the world’s hardest metal.

The old man falls to his knees on the ground screaming in pain. I crouch down to be roughly eye level with him, “Now, now. Why would you attack your own son?”

The crazed old man laughs yet again, “You? My son?” Tears were coming from his eyes, “If you were my son I would maybe have had a nice talk with you first. That stupid hag had predicted that a useless trash from the countryside would rise to power. I thought I would take my chance and take you in as my own son.”

I weakly smile, “So you killed my real parents in order to fulfill your own selfish desires?”

He nods with a crazed expression on his face, “Of course. Your real parents were worthless trash. How could I let people like them rise to the throne?”

I move my right arm quickly and cut off his left arm using the dagger without even blinking, “Whoops, I slipped.”

He falls to the ground while trying to cover the bleeding stump that used to be his arm. He looks at me with a terrified expression on his face, “I’m at the ninth realm also! How are you so much more powerful!?”

I laugh a little, “Before I kill you for multiple crimes against the kingdom, I will tell you a secret.” I lean over his ear and whisper, “The ninth realm isn’t the end. I’m close to figuring it out, but not quite done.”

His face goes pale and his eyes go dark for a split second.

Before the old man even does anything else, I stand up and start walking away. I then crush the old man’s body underneath a layer of my internal energy. I close the door behind me and walk out of the castle. I give a small laugh, “What a wonderful family visit.”

I wipe off the dagger that the old man was using against me, “This is a high quality treasure.” I snap my fingers, “I should give this to my wife as a present from my ‘father’.” I let out another laughs as I start going back to the castle.

I fly through the air while enjoying the scenery of the mainland. The mountains are grassy and the forests are thick. Nature is so beautiful. “Maybe I could relax in the mountains once I get another bit of time off.”

As I near the capital I hear screams coming from the opposite side of the castle town. I see the leading castle guard on the ground. She is shouting at the guards running towards the south side of the city. “Move faster! We need to hold them off until the supreme emperor comes back to the castle!”

I land beside her, “What’s going on here?”

She immediately kneels, “There seems to have been an invasion of magical beasts from the south.”

“Get up and move the guards to protect the citizens. Damn, this is not good. Who is currently holding them back?”

She orders some more guards to the places where magical beasts are and then turns to face me, “The empress is currently holding them back. So far only magical beasts equivalent to third realm practitioners have arrived, but stronger ones take their place as soon as they fall.”

I nod and quickly start to travel, “Thank you for the update.”

The leading guard orders more men to move as I leave the scene. I travel to the southern side of the city. As I arrive I see many monsters that looked as if they had been built by a mad genius. A lion’s body with multiple snake like heads. A bears head on a gorilla like body. A horse head on snake’s body. Seriously… what the F--- is that thing.

I spot my wife in the crowd of magical beasts. She was fighting against a beast equivalent to the fifth realm. It was beheaded almost instantly. I quickly make my way over, “I’m back, where are the problem areas?”

She turns her head as she decapitates another beast. She was using a sword that had a blade on only one side, golden markings, and made of a blue steel. The sword’s name was ‘God Killer’ and it was a relic that was found in a shrine while I was exploring. She moves to where I was, “Welcome back darling.”

I crush a beast’s skull, “It’s good to be back. Anyways, where are the larger problem areas so I can go help?”

She cuts a smaller magical beast in half down the center, “Well, right now the worst area would be here. However I can probably handle it. What needs to be done is to find the commander and take them out so the other beasts just leave.”

I rip a magical beast’s head off by kicking it in the temple, “The beasts have a commander? I’ve never heard of such a case.”

She slowly nods, “Well. It was able to speak human tongue fluently and loud enough so that we knew that it came from behind all the beasts, but we have not seen it yet.”

I look towards the direction of the swarming magical beasts while gutting a bear like body with a single palm strike, “I can probably go check it out.” I kiss her on the cheek as I fly by, “See you soon.”

She waves, “See you soon darling!”

I quickly fly high above the rest of the magical beasts. The fields underneath them have been trampled to the point that no grass is even showing. Nearby trees have been splintered from battle. There was not a single cloud in the sky as the sun scorched the people and the earth beneath them.

I see a flying magical beast ahead of me. It is equivalent to the seventh realm. It looked like a small dragon. It was only two meters in length. It was instantly killed as I flew by. It didn’t even know how it died, nor did it realize it was even dead.

I see that the beasts are stronger as the flood went on. There were only a handful of beasts at equivalent to the ninth realm. There was a magical beast in the back that I had never seen before.

It had a black body, it was about the size of two men and its muscles were larger than a human’s. It had red horns coming from the side of its head. Its facial features were similar to that of a human’s. I unconsciously mutter, “What the hell is that?”

It looks up at me in the sky. A wicked smile appears on its face. It appears in front of me within the time it takes to blink your eyes. A low raspy voice exits its unmoving mouth, “Nice to meet you. My name is Alveros.”

I nod while being incredibly nervous. This magical beast’s aura is stronger than mine. I have no idea what rank this thing is. “Nice to meet you Alveros. I am the current emperor of these lands.”

Alveros looks at me from top to bottom, “Such a waste. Your talent should let you enter the Heaven realms. Too bad that you had a bad twist of fate.”

I laugh slightly, “What are you talking about?”

The beast just laughs, “You met me, a demon, while practicing a divine method.” He lunges at me as he finishes his sentence. The self-proclaimed demon circulates a black colored gas around itself, “In the name of the mighty demon god I shall conquer this plane of existence!”

The demon seems to teleport out of vision. A hand reaches through my left shoulder. Immense pain starts to circulate throughout my entire body. The pain is comparable to having my skin peeled off layer by layer.

My internal energy surges and the demon jumps back quickly. The wound on my shoulder has already started to heal.

A sliver of energy enters the crystal around my neck. The wall that was almost eroded instantly shattered. Information starts to flow into my head.

The method to enter the Sky realms.

Many techniques for once I reach the next rank.

And best of all… A forbidden technique, ‘Heaven Shattering’

‘Heaven Shattering’ was a technique that raised the user’s power by one thousand times the opponents in front of them.

If that was all there was to it, the heavens would not allow such a technique to exist. The compensation was… your life. No matter how powerful, or weak the opponent, if you used this technique your life will end in at most an hour after using the technique.

It takes time to explain all this, but in reality it only took a split second to get all the information.

I frown heavily, “This technique is too risky to use right now. I don’t want to use it unless there is no other option.”

The demon appears to my left side, “You done talking to yourself?”

I use ‘Wind Merger’ to quickly move to the right. I use a technique called ‘Energy Sword’. It allows me to create a sword out of my internal energy. I based the design off the ‘God Killer’ sword also, its speed and sharpness were unmatched by any other sword.

The sword shines a golden color while staying a translucent white. It is stronger than the ‘God Killer’ sword.

The Demon smiles arrogantly, “I will stand in place and accept one attack from your sword there.”

I don’t hesitate and accept the demon’s offer by moving with the skill ‘Celestial Downfall’. It is a skill that allows a person to travel faster than a shooting star. It is not useful for travelling because of the massive cost of internal energy.

I swing horizontally at the demons neck while moving faster than sound can keep up with.

The sword makes contact with the demon’s throat… and shatters. A vibration makes its way up my arms causing them to instantly go numb.

The demon laughs with a smile on its face, “Nice try human.” It shakes its head, “Such a waste to kill a talented young man like yourself. When I was your age, I was only at the seventh realm.”

The demon moves his arm faster than I can see. A blur moves through my abdomen.

Blood flies in all directions as it falls to the ground. My vision slightly fades.

I need to protect the town! The life of those close to me depend on whether or not I kill this thing. It is so much stronger than I am though.

Run with my life, and let everyone else die?

Or. I can sacrifice my life to save everyone in the town, including my wife.

I’ve made my choice!

I mutter under my breath, “I’m sorry.”

The demon smiles sadistically, “Oh boy, you seem to think that you can defeat me.”

“HEAVEN SHATTERING!” I shout the words at the top of my lungs.

The forbidden skill activates. My power suddenly surges to many realms higher than where I was previously.

The energy swirls around me in a golden mist. It could kill a normal person if they even looked at it the wrong way.

The demon’s eyes open so wide you can see the whites of its eyes, “You dare!”

The demon removes its arm from my abdomen and slashes at me like its arm is a sword.

I don’t move even a hair’s width.

Suddenly, “Crunch!” I grab his arm and crush it in my palm.

The demon roars so loud that the air vibrates.

It lunges at me with incredible speed, but I am faster now. I grab its head as it flies past.

I put a hand on either side and smash my knee into his skull. The skull is crushed with the force of a mountain collapsing.

The demon’s brains fly in every direction. It dies on the spot. No more fuss.

“It’s over!” I shout with enthusiasm.

As the demon’s soul is moved out from its body, an intense pain goes through my entire body and I fall to the ground.

A shout can be heard in the distance, “Darling!”

My wife seems to appear by my side. I smile at her while lying on the ground, “I did it. I killed their commander.”

She picks up my head in her arms, “You did great darling. Let’s go get you treated.”

I cough heavily, blood sprays out of my mouth, “I have some bad news.” I gently laugh, “You’ll have to run these lands by yourself from now on.”

Her face turns from playful to serious in a split second, then to a face full of sadness, “What are you talking about? You’ll be fine. We just need to get you to the healers in the town.”

I forcefully raise my sore arm to her face, “If it were that simple, I would have already gone with you. You see…” I cough up more blood, “I used something I probably shouldn’t have to defeat that demon.”

Tears were starting to fall from her eyes, “What do you mean?”

I smile, “Don’t cry, in my last moments I don’t want you to be sad, I want to see your beautiful smile.”

She mouths the two words that she never wanted to hear, ‘Last moments’. She forcefully smiles. It’s easy to tell that it is forced because the tears start to fall faster.

I cough yet again, “Now that’s better. I want you to know that I love you. Please don’t mourn over me too much. It would be too sad if the whole town was put to a standstill.”

She lightly laughs, “Even in your final moments you do not care for yourself.”

I caress her smooth cheek, “Why would I care about my own life? I lived for myself when I was young, now I have to make sure that the young live for themselves. But before all that I have to make sure they live.”

She smiles genuinely, but tears still fall, “Everyone is safe now.”

I close my eyes slowly, “I’m tired now. Remember that I love you. You should be a great ruler, I was way too peaceful to count as a good ruler.”

My wife kisses me for the last time, “I’ll see you later darling.”

As my consciousness starts to fade I say, “I see you later.”

Like that I lose all feeling in my body. I hear nothing. I see nothing.

After what seemed like an eternity of nothingness a bright light is shining through my eyelids.

‘I’m still alive?’ was my first thought. But I heard voices.

A deep male voice enters my ears, “Doctor, his pulse has returned.”

A light female voice with slight urgency says, “Fantastic, get the anesthetic gas ready ASAP.”

Fingers mover on my eyelids and forcefully open my eyes. I look at the woman.

She was wearing blue gloves covered in red. A white robe of some sort that was similarly stained red.

“Patient is responsive, prepare the mask.”

“Yes!”

The people talk to each other. I try to speak but I can’t move a single muscle other than my eyes.

I look around the room, but am not able to see anything as the light above makes the rest of the room seem to dark.

The light was so bright it was almost blinding.

“Attach the mask immediately before he regains feeling in his body!”

A clear mask with some sort of cable was attached to my face over my mouth and nose.

A sweet smelling gas rushes in through the mask, as soon as I smell it I lose consciousness yet again.