Legends and myths would spread among the Middle Heavens and its constituent parts, be they Provinces or Starfields, each made up of thousands of multiverses and trillions of universes.

A humble cook took on the might of the Mercy Emperor, and then even defeated a Patriarch who came down from the High Heavens to intervene.

But as always, these legends would be wrong, or at most contain just a tiny kernel of truth.

For the cook did defeat the Mercy Emperor and even his big brother, that famous North Wind Patriarch. Kinda.

"Sick them!" Pef commanded in a bored voice, as he unleashed his mighty universe-eating beasts. All three of them were especially fast now, after eating a Demon Speed Pill each.

"...Big Brother! Help..." the Mercy Emperor yelled in panic as the Bee Queen chased him with her deadly venomous sting. They were equally fast, so he kept yelling for a while, somehow manging to dodge the sting time and time again.

"...Have mercy" the East Wind Overgod pleaded as the Taotie crunched his bones in his jaws. The Taotie was quite hungry.

"..." the South Wind Overgod didn't say much, as a single paw from the White Tiger eviscerated his body and ripped out his lungs.

Pef simply stepped near and collected the loot with his right hand, as his left hand was holding a tea cup smelling quite heavenly. He then sipped some tea, and gestured minutely to direct the beasts to converge onto the main target.

Both the Taotie and the White Tiger moved to chase, giving the Mercy Emperor less room to flee.

'Get ready! I can sense fluctuations in all energy fields around.' the orange glove warned its user.

Pef sighed inward and hoped for the best. An instant later the sky broke open and a huge wind current descended, pushed downwards by a gigantic glowing hand. "Pretty impressive..." he remarked in a honest voice.

"Who dares attack my Western Wind brother?" the wind shouted in Divine Words, almost making the beasts falter in their chase. Almost, but they still chased.

Luckily for them, the Mercy Emperor slowed down as he felt help was near, and got bowled over in a tangle of limbs and claws by the Taotie, while the Old Bee used the opportunity to lash with her sting and poison the target with her best venom.

The White Tiger, being slightly wiser flew back, hidding behind Pef. He might be a Godbeast and quite powerful in general, but High Nobles or Patriarchs from the High Heavens were still stronger.

"I dare!" Pef replied in between two tea sips, barely glancing at the menacing wind that congealed into a human shape.

"Then you will d..." the figure began to respond, when he vanished without a trace, locked inside a certain Tier 12 pill bottle.

Pef stepped beside the dying Heavenly Emperor and calmly began to loot his body, while the Taotie munched on the man's feet. Still hungry.

"...where is my big brother?" the dying Emperor asked in a confused voice.

"Gone with the wind." Pef answered with a small smile.

The loot this time was even better than what he gained from the Imperial Vault, especially the items and artifacts found on the Tier 11 Patriarch.

"Impossible..." the Mercy Emperor groaned with his last breath, as the Taotie had already began crunching on his heart.

Pef just shrugged as he turned towards the Old Bee Queen. "In or out, your Imperial Majesty?"

To her credit, the Old Queen didn't flinch, even as the Taotie crunched loudly on the former Emperor's head and slurped the brain for nourishment and cultivation

.

"In for now, Master. I would rather be with my kind." she answered in a calm buzz.

Pef nodded and formed a Violet Portal at this side, and the Old Bee flew inside, to rest beside her last remaining daughters inside the Violet Realm.

"I'd like to return at Lara's side, Lord Pef. And I'd like to bring her another gingseng root." the White Tiger said in a wary voice. Seeing the almighty Patriarch just vanish in front of Pef was enough to make him reconsider everything about cultivation and Ascension realms. But asking for some reward was also necessary.

"Fair enough, your Majesty. Take it." Pef offered as he flicked the second ginseng at the Godbeast, who stored it inside his storage collar. Then the tiger flew out at speed, far faster than Pef himself could move.

'I'm still too slow.' Pef admitted in a sad inward voice.

'And there's a single gingseng root left now. Will you give it to the General?' the glove asked with obvious ulterior motives.

'No. I can scrape it into flakes and use it for cooking. Should increase my Tier 10 recipe chances by a large ammount, and even failures will still Ascend people into Tier 9" Pef answered after a minute of thought.

In front of him, the Taotie licked his teeth and lay down to digest his kill, not simply the meat but the cultivation Daos he had just Devoured. Truly, the old badger had the easiest life of them all.

Pef waved a hand and moved the beast beside the Silent Monk, as the combined auras of the Holy Trees did make enlightenment far easier.

'Let's visit the Four Winds ruins. There should be something there worth looting.' the glove demanded as Pef simply stared into distance without aim.

'Yes. Good idea, my orange glove. The Mercy Emperor surely had something hidden here.' Pef realized with a sudden insight.

A few days later, Pef arrived at the giant ruins left behind the fall of the Four Winds, four entire universes bound together like petals onto a crystal stem covered with concealment and protection Formations, most of them cracked or damaged.

Inside his heart, the Soul Sword wobbled slightly, giving signs of awakening.

'What is it?' Pef asked inward as he spread out thousands of clones to cover the area.

'Transport stem. Damaged.' the World Tree seed answered in a lethargic tone.

'Part of the World Tree?' Pef wondered as he began examining and learning the new Formations, some dealing with Void Dao or Preservation, while others had thousands of lesser Daos, from Blood Dao to Mind arrays or even Oracle arrays.

'They would scan and transport the target into a different universe, depending on bloodlines and other identity markers like Sect allegiance or a House token.' the glove added as it also scanned the formations for clues, matching them with known uses from the thousand libraries in its memory.

Pef touched the crystal with a curious hand, and the space around him folded.

He turned, finding a new world around, floating mountains with clear waterfalls falling over the sides, gliding islands and thousands of small boats filling the sky.

'We're surely not in Kansas now." he observed out loud.

Then he checked himself, finding the Seven Colored Pagoda and the pill bottle had vanished. Even his right hand was now missing a certain glove.