--Voracious Cloud Continent--

In a dark throne room filled with swathes of miasma, sat a handsome man on a demonic throne. His dark charm would weaken the hearts of men and women alike. He was taking a sip of wine from a golden chalice when a figure in dark robes appeared kneeling in front of his throne.

"Any news?"

"Reporting. The life lanterns of the Boar Brothers have been extinguished. The Scene was unable to give any information about their whereabouts. "

The demonic man frowned.

"This world is just too weird. Not just foundation stage experts, even golden core experts just vanish without a trace at times. The wild is full of beasts and the settlements are chaotic like an ant's nest," he lamented.

"How much I despise having to work with local powers. But if we moved openly, the Alliance will get wind of it. We can't let them find out before we took roots over there."

If the big clans and sects started to move, there wouldn't even be a morsel left for them. It was their good fortune that the knowledge of this new world was not public yet and the big factions were still hesitating to take the first step.

A malicious smile decorated his face as he kept thinking. As long as they could secretly set up their foundation before anyone else he could raise to new heights and his sect wouldn't need to be afraid of any faction anymore.

"Send some more outer disciples to keep an eye on those locals and have them set up hideouts. I think it's time to prepare to cut ties with The Scene. You know what to do."

In a decade or two they would be able to dominate in the new territories.

"Yes, my liege."

…

"Urgh!" the elder of the Northern Edge Sect was thrown to the stone floor.

"You really found him, Brother," a man who had been sitting cross-legged in the cave said in slight surprise. He had been cultivating up to now but stood up when he saw his sworn brother enter the cave, following the bundled-up elder.

"I had to redeem a little favor, but it wasn't hard," Master Mountain downplayed his deal with Minas Mar.

"How did you old codgers even find this place!?" the squirming captive on the ground exclaimed when he realized where he was brought. Other may not have recognized, but these were the secret training grounds of the Northern Edge Sect's shadow guards.

"How could I not find this place after you kidnapped my daughter-in-law's cousin and brought him here? Did you think the heavens are blind and your Northern Edge Sect could get away with everything?!"

Although he had spoken quite calmly, a tremendous force was building and pressing down on the helpless elder on the ground.

"Brother, hold back your anger. His cultivation has already been crippled some time ago and he didn't have a comfortable life in the foreign lands. I had to feed him various pills on the way, just to help him regain his consciousness," Master Mountain warned his friend.

They still needed the man to enter and open the secret passage. At Yu's warning, his old friend reigned in his spiritual pressure.

"You are right," he said with a forceful sigh. They still needed the old cripple to open the entrance.

"Kukuku Hahaha! You think I would help you and betray my sect? I may have lost my cultivation base and some of my mind, but this will never- Urp!"

Something had shot into his mouth, clogged his throat, and traveled right down to his stomach.

"W-What did you make me swallow?" he pressed out under heavy coughs.

"Don't blame me for being ruthless. It was the tail of the striped Yin-Yang Skink It turns you into a simple appendage of the reptile. As long as I control it, you will do what I tell you," the old man in explained solemnly.

"You had a striped Yin-Yang Skink?" Master Mountains exclaimed surprised.

This creature was extremely rare and highly sought after. Although it was a technique that did not work on people with a high cultivation base, it gave almost absolute control over those without any cultivation base at all.

"I had to exchange it for my 100-year-old snow ginseng in preparation for today," his friend answered with a dark face.

"You really paid dearly."

"Anything for the family."

The elder of the Northern Edge sect had fallen silent during their short dialogue. The skink tail had taken effect, turning him into a puppet. They released the binding on the elder and he stood up.

"Now, open the entrance," the old man ordered.

The elder cut his finger and drew a complicated symbol on the cave wall in the back. The seemingly seamless rock started vibrating and slowly parted at a clean line. Beyond the stone entrance was a clean regal hallway. Finely carved walls and even a floor of polished sandalwood.

"Let's go."

"Yeah, let us."

The two old men slowly entered the hidden base of the Northern Edge Sect, and the puppet followed at some distance. The two old men were ready to get stretch their old bones and wreak some havoc.

…

--Urth, close to Epsilon in the far east.--

A dirty hand broke through the volcanic ashes. The monk's dirty face surface from the searing ashes.

His robes were blackened and burned, but the man himself was unhurt by the burning emissions. Looking around, the green plain he had wandered before has turned into a wasteland of destruction.

What land had that demon led him to? Monsters and Flooddragons are everywhere. Even the earth itself was in unrest, spewing fire and ashes. Lava streams were flowing from the mountains that had seemed so calm mere hours ago.

It was hard to see through the dust clouds that still hung in the air, the residues of the devastating pyroclastic cloud that had swept over him not long ago.

After losing the demon's traces he had wandered these foreign lands, looking for a way back to his monastery. But he could no longer find where this world and the Voracious Cloud continent were connected with each other.

All this place had to offer were weird fruits and scaly fiends. The monk was close to breaking his oath and eating the tough meat of these beasts. To make matters worse, a mountain had suddenly erupted not far from him.

He wandered through the desert of hot ashes. All flora and fauna had vanished, the landscape was completely changed. Although he wished to don a new set of robes, he resisted the urge as they would burn up and be ruined just the same as his current ones.

Resisting the heat with his buddha body was possible, but his clothes would not be spared.

The monk was wandering aimlessly, trying to find a way out of the dust cloud, when he heard the splashing of thick liquid. When he turned around his eyes fell on a bright shining warrior in a sinister armor.

Bright yellow and orange light escaped between armor plates that looked like the darkness itself. Orange lava still dropped from his body as he stepped out of the stream, leaving smoldering footprints as he walked.

In his hand he held a crude-looking axe that seemed to have formed from solidified magma, also dripping orange, molten rock from its honed edge. Although the monk couldn't make out any eyes from the brightly glowing holes in the helmet, he could feel the creature's gaze on him.

Unsure how to react, he tried to greet the creature.

"Ami-"

But his greeting was rudely interrupted by the axe swinging at his head. He could only dodge in a hurry, feeling his scalp being cooked despite dodging and possessing greatly tempered flesh.

He looked warily at the creature that had suddenly appeared. This wasn't going to be... easy? His face fell as more armored beasts emerged from the lava flow behind his opponent. This didn't look good.