As he entered the doorway, time in itself seemed to slow down to a certain degree. The look and feel of the place around him distorted as space seemed to be collapsing on itself.

As the speed of Azreth’s movements seemed unnatural compared to his surroundings; the lights around him contracted towards the space enabling a certain degree of stability.

The distortion amounted to the elimination of the outsider; in this case it was Azreth. This realm or whatever it was, was very fragile and an outsider could cause the destruction of the entire realm.

Soon, Azreth’s movements started to stabilise around the time of the realm. The constant distortion and contraction of the realm abruptly stopped when this happened. Everything returned to normal as if nothing ever happened.

Azreth unaware of the things occurring around him kept blissfully walking in a single direction. The reason was because of a subtle yet tempting sound. His surroundings soon started to change and take shape in the form of a gigantic forest with beautiful flowers and trees.

The birds chirping, the animals grazing on the grass and coexisting peacefully with each other with no ill intent was a sight to behold. It was almost like a dream, well Azreth was most certain it definitely was.

The sound was permeating throughout the dense forest, not overpowering but gentle in nature complimenting the bright sunny day and the gentle wind. It was almost like heaven on earth, but that seemed too good to be true for Azreth. He was certain that he would wake up any moment now as he believed he was having a vivid hallucinatory dream due to the sheer exhaustion he experienced throughout the day.

Getting closer to the source of the sound Azreth felt like it was attacking his mind. He soon felt like he would fall into a trance and never snap out of it. There was this vivid nature in the sound which epitomised the very fragility of a person’s mind. The key component in a creature’s mind is its awareness, any attempt at a minute or subtle change can cause havoc and lead to a permanent disability but most likely death itself.

Azreth started practising his meditation technique in his mind trying to ward off the influence of the perfunctory sound. The space around him kept flickering as the ripples sent out from his body kept him sane and his consciousness being lost in the abyss.

As he approached near the vicinity of the sound the scene in front of him shocked him to the core.

There was this absolute peerless beauty playing the zither. She had snow white skin and dark green eyes. She was dressed in a white imperial robe which further accentuated her grace and beauty. Her presence was akin to a lone snowflake in a barren wasteland.

Azreth cautiously approached this mysterious woman as she was the only other person around in this place.

“I am surprised that the sound of my zither has no effect on you boy. You are my first visitor in well over a thousand years…no, ten thousand years. Well, I stopped counting a while back so I apologise for my misrepresentation.”

The woman speaks in a soft voice while still playing the zither. She did not make any sudden movements; she just spoke in a gentle but confused tone.

“Hmm…you don’t look that old. How old are you miss?”

Azreth asks in a doubtful and reserved manner. If what she says was true she must be a peerless expert and a foot placed wrong most likely would lead to an instant death sentence for him.

“Boy, Is that the first thing you ask a woman you just met, her age?! With that kind of attitude you will have no luck with the ladies when you grow up.”

Azreth was stumped; he was not sure what to say. Was asking a woman’s age some sort of taboo? Azreth just couldn’t figure that out.

“Anyways, my name is Keira Lockburn, what might your name be young boy?”

She introduced herself without stopping her hands for a moment from playing the zither.

“My name is Azreth Targ and I am six years old. The name Lockburn, it does not ring a bell.”

Azreth had a smug expression on his face for some reason as he proudly announced his age.

Keira frowned and fell into a trance of deep thought at the words of Azreth. She kept thinking for a while until

“So, you are a descendent from the almighty Targ sect. Of course with all their Emperor Realm experts they were bound to thrive after the war with the Trakfern Continent.”

Emperor Realm experts…War…Trakfern Continent? Azreth felt this woman was crazy as she implied that the Targ sect was filled with Emperor Realm experts.

“Old hag, you have definitely gone senile. There are no emperor realm experts in the Targ sect or the entire kingdom of Terelia. There may be some outside but I would not know of that as they are an extremely indomitable and rare existence. Let alone the Emperor Realm, even King Realm experts are few and far between.”

“Kingdom of Terelia? Brat, are you looking to die? Who the hell do you think you’re calling an old hag?”

Keira was absolutely fuming at the statement of Azreth. No one in her entire life had so much as spoken a speck of insult upon her face. Then this stupid Qi gathering stage brat comes along and calls her a stupid old hag. This was the biggest insult she had to ever face in her life. Not even her enemies dared to insult her on her face.

“Well, you did say you were more than ten thousand years old and my headmaster is nearly four thousand years. So, I call him an old man and in your context you are definitely an old hag.”

A vein twitches on the forehead of Keira. She just could not understand this outlandish brat who repeatedly kept calling her an old hag.

“By the way, what are you doing here playing this zither? If I hadn’t practised my meditation technique the sound of your zither would have invaded and then destroyed my mind.”

Azreth was still wary of this woman as he could not even guess her cultivation level. It felt like she held many deep and profound secrets.

“Brat, who are you and how can you not be affected by the sound of my zither. All those who have walked before you became mindless creatures and soon perished without a doubt. Do you even know the kind of situation you are in?”

“I know that you definitely are a figment of my imagination and this is all a dream. I came across this giant tree in the forest and am resting beneath it. This is probably a hallucinatory dream I am having right now.”

“How can this be a dream if you realise that this is a dream. If you still think this is a dream, go and bash your head upon that tree and then bleed out and die. Then you probably will wake up or maybe you won’t.”

Keira had a smirk on her face. All sorts of questions began ringing in the head of Azreth about the giant tree. Was it some sort of portal or an array which transported me to this place? Am I stuck here forever or more importantly how do I get out of here?

“How do I get out of this place and can you please stop playing your zither as it is quite distracting.”

“You are a funny kid. Do you think I enjoy playing this zither? I have been playing this zither for over ten thousand years without stopping. This is because as soon as I stop playing the Zither this place will collapse and I will die along with it. My enemies created this extremely peculiar realm to trap me inside without a chance of escape.”

Azreth was shocked; people powerful enough to create realms? Just what sort of person was this old woman?

“Wh…What is your cultivation level and who are your enemies?”

“Ah, now curious aren’t you? Very well, I am not really that powerful though just a peak level Emperor Realm expert. I haven’t cultivated in well over ten thousand years and that is the reason I have not been able to increase my cultivation level.”

Azreth felt like his jaw dropped to the floor. A peak level Emperor Realm expert who was just a whisker way from the fabled Divine Realm, this was the sort of existence that Azreth could only dream about.

Keira was not sure why Azreth was so surprised but she did enjoy the astonished look on his face. She hadn’t felt this look of worship in quite a long time and she was relishing in every bit of this moment.

“Emp…Emperor Realm? You are just a few breaths away from the Divine Realm?”

“Brat are you an idiot? How can I skip two entire Realms and enter the Divine Realm? I have never seen or heard about a Divine Realm expert in my entire life!”

“After someone breaks through the Emperor Realm, they enter the Legend Realm and after they break through that they enter the Ascension Realm. Only after breaking through the Ascension Realm can someone enter the Divine Realm!”

“I have also never seen or heard about anyone being in the Ascension Realm. This Realm is like a mythical existence to everyone forgetting about the Divine Realm.”

Azreth was extremely shocked and confused about what he just heard from Keira. There were two entire realms after the Emperor Realm, why was this not written in any of the books he ever read? Azreth was sure that even the headmaster did not know about the existences of two more Realms after the Emperor Realm. He himself in the grand scheme of things is just a mere Lord Realm expert.

“I have never heard about the Legend Realm or the Ascension realm in my entire life. From all the books that I have read, these existences are not even mentioned. I have read journals which were more than one hundred thousand years old and even in them there is no such information regarding these existences.”

“Also, what about the war with the Trakfern continent? I have never heard about a war taking place in the past one hundred thousand years and don’t even know that such a continent existed. Before the period of hundred thousand years is known as the Dark ages and there is barely any information regarding that period. The only other continent besides ours I am aware of is the Dark continent, which is an extremely mystical place.”

Keira silently takes in all what Azreth has said and thinks about it. After some time she says

“It seems time flows differently in this realm compared to the outside. From what you have said, maybe I have spent more than a hundred thousand years trapped in this place. But, alas there is no way for me to get out of this realm and now you are trapped here along with me as well.”

“That may not necessarily be true…”