Pathway To Eternity

He dreamt of place of creation that was as beautiful as a heavenly palacium of beautiful crystal gems with a beautiful garden and lovely fruit trees. The fruit tress of different kind lined the palacium garden with a river of heavenly elixir that was rich in sweetness flowing through it and lovely birds singing beautiful songs.

The scenery was a delightful one to watch and experience. And he was living this dream to the full. He was relaxing by the river, eating heavenly fruits, drinking heavenly elixir and listening to the birds sing making his mind peaceful and calm, a perfect mood. He was having a wonderful time enjoying the place.

Then, he realized that he was alone in this place.

Where was everyone? How did he get here in the first place? This couldn"t be right. Definitely, something must be wrong with this place. The solemn sense of danger with being the only one or last one in a seemingly beautiful world.

His mind was fastly processing all these when everything suddenly changed.

Pure black tendrils of powerfully dangerous energy started to crawl all over the world turning it into a pit of terrible darkness. He quickly materialised a light energy. The darkness was extremely strong but he had enough Chi to maintain the light energy for the time being. It was like a faint candle light in the sphere of darkness but he kept it going. He tried to move but he couldn"t raise his legs, the weight of the black tendrils was weighing him down.

Is this a dream?

Just as he was wondering, a dark treble voice boomed out of the darkness.

"Child, we know who you are. And nothing can save you."

A pair of large shining black eyes, appeared out of the darkness.

Jufeng woke up with a jolt from his sleep. What kind of dreams was that? The black tendrils resembled the atrament energy maybe with a little difference? He couldn"t say in totality. But this was simply a dream. What we fear, sometimes, appear in our dreams. He wouldn"t dwell on it for what it was. He remembered the words of his uncle, t.i.tan lord Primus that he needed to be much more stronger and powerful to be able to live without that kind of fear.

The feeling of water as he splashed it on his face was refreshingly soothing and it had a little calming effect on his mind. As he was putting on his robe, he heard a knock on the door to his cave. He quickly fastened his robe and opened the door to find a disciple smiling at him.

"Greetings brother Jufeng, my name is Yan Zhihao. First disciple of master Zhou Lin." Yan Zhihao gave a slightly cupped hand gesture.

"I greet you senior brother Yan." Jufeng also extended a cupped hand forward with a slight bow.

"I welcome you to the Lightning Reach. That"s the name of our faction by the way." Yan Zhihao beamed. "If you are ready, kindly follow me."

"I"m ready senior brother Yan."

Yan Zhihao led Jufeng to the faction hall where other fifty disciples were waiting. In the flying stars sect, all the disciples of a master would train together, the top disciples would help in training the new disciples. The strength of a faction was the strength of the sect as a whole. He quickly introduced them to Jufeng and vise-versa.

Fifty disciples of lightning, this was much more than that of his home world"s sect. The thought of this being one of the smallest sect in this world is really hard to believe. How many disciples would the biggest sect have? Frightning.

Couple of minutes later, master Zhou Lin entered the hall and slowly walked to the front of the hall facing the disciples. He was wearing a pristine white robe laced with gold threads.

"Good morning master." They all chorused at once.

"Hm." Master Zhou Lin nodded in acknowledgement.

He glanced at their faces. His disciples were apprehensively watching him. They had been training very hard for the upcoming selection, they didn"t want to disappoint their master and the sect. He could understand their plight and deeply appreciated it. A true disciple was the one who put everything into practice not because of anxiousness of success but because of apprehension of failure. He commended that in them. While still looking at them, his mind strayed to the source of their predicament.

Ozoros, the transient dominion.

On every plane, there were , dominions of different sizes. It was inside these dominions that artifacts of different levels of power were hidden. One of these dominions was Ozoros, the transient dominion. A place located on the same planet, Charat. It was rumored to be a place where a powerful artifact was hidden, a divine or luminous artifact at the least.

There were two types of dominions. They were the wake dominions and the fallen dominions.

The wake dominions were dominions still had masters, their masters could be divine beasts, ancient sacred beasts, primordial t.i.tans or even demiG.o.ds.

The fallen dominions were ancient ruins. Once great and powerful dominions but had become tombs and catacombs.

These two domininions were of the same regulations when it involved cultivators" entrace into their premises. There were some that had no restrictions, all cultivators could enter. There were some that only golden core cultivators and above could enter. Yet, there were some ruins that golden cores and above couldn"t enter, only Zhuji level and below could enter. But the issue with the third type was that, these ruins were too powerful and dagerous for anyone below golden core level yet they were the only that could enter.

That was where a peak stage nascent soul or an hegemon came in.

After a s.p.a.cetime premier would have located the area of the transient dominion, the hegemon or a peak stage nascent soul would have to open and hold a rift for the premiers to enter. After the premiers were inside, they would have to locate the entrance and activate at least two heavenly hold seals enabling the hegemon or peakstage nascent soul to enter the dominion for a period of time.

But the difference? The supreme sovereign was in possession of five heavenly seal that could steadily hold the rift opened for a period of time before disintegrating. Five of the premiers would hold a heavenly seal each that they would locate by the gates of the ruins which would be easier for them to locate from the inside. And they would activate the seals once they were placed.

Acquiring some divine or luminous artifacts was really extremely difficult and the Ozoros ruins was as diificult as any. For thousands of years, emperor Qing Yuan had been trying to get hold of the artifact inside Ozoros but had been unsuccessful. Every thousand years, sects would send chosen premiers to the emperor for this purpose.

To be part of the chosen meant the sect would gain immeasurable recognition throughout the world and the cultivators would be important personalities if they could survive.

Oh, how he wished he could provide a disciple that would represent the flying stars sect in front of the emperor. His name as a master would forever be legendary. But, their sect was one of the smallest, how could they compare to the top sects?

Zhou Lin rested his eyes on Jufeng.

Could he be the difference he had been waiting for?

"Today, we have a new disciple in our midst, a new disciple from the outer section. I know you"ve already met him but i want to formally bring him to your awareness again as tradition stated. Jufeng, come forward."

"Yes master." Jufeng voiced from the back as he hurried to the front.

After having Jufeng beside him at the front, he continued.

"You are all once a new disciple and you know what it takes. As a new disciple, we want to make sure that Jufeng here, feels welcome and comfortable to be with us. We all want to do everything we can to help him and guide him. Every member of our faction is valuable and precious. I know you all have your eyes set on the upcoming event but we want to train and prepare every member of our faction, together. We want to show everybody that our Lightning reach can be a main anchor of the sect and we can only do that together. Especially, as we want our faction to present representative to the sovereign domain."

He flicked his hand in the air and it stirred a bit of lightning streaks.

"Jufeng, here, underwent his triubilations last night same day he was accepted. I don"t know what that means, but i hope it"s something for the better. He will be with Yan Zhihao but all of you have the same responsibilities."

He turned to Jufeng with a mild smile on his face.

"Jufeng, watch, listen, learn and practice. Don"t discard their words, you could always learn from them. As a cultivator you wouldn"t go wrong on this."

He whispered to his a.s.sistant, Su Ming, a golden core cultivator who had mild temper but her eyes were like lightning hawks to take over the martial art session before turning to Jufeng.

"Jufeng, Come with me."

"Yes, master." He quickly fall behind his master.

Master Zhou Lin took Jufeng to the open area near his hill and sat down.

"Jufeng, i tell you this, in this world of cultivation, its all about power. The artifacts, items, techniques and your level of cultivation determine who you are and where you are in this world. You may believe that you have the higher cultivation level than your opponent but if your opponent had more powerful artifacts or items, you could be dead. Likewise, if you have powerful artifacts and items but you don"t have a high enough cultivation level to use them against your opponent who had higher cultivation level than you, you might easily die too. You may even have powerful artifacts, items and a very good cultivation level but if your opponent has a higher cultivation level and higher technique, you may also die easily. You do not think because you have a divine weapon as a premier, you could face a nascent soul. You will simply die. Wisdom makes you discern what is and what is not"

His gaze fell and he shook his dejectedly.

"We have lost many fine cultivators who fell into the illusion they could achieve what wisely couldn"t be done."

"Master.. ." Jufeng stammered when he saw the expression of his master.

"Its alright, Jufeng. The important thing is for you to be strong in all aspects, if it takes time, so be it. Be sure to have all what it takes to prevent burns and heat before walking into an inferno . All the aspects must be strong for you to truly walk without watching your back or slipping. If not, you will simply die. It"s the simple truth."

Master Zhou Lin stared at Jufeng keenly before suddenly smiling.

"Jufeng, just yesterday you joined the inner sect and you underwent your Zhuji tribulations same day. I have to tell you, i"m really proud of you. I do hope it"s a beginning of good things for you, all you have to do is continue working harder and get stronger. We will try our best to make sure you have the best support you need."

Master Zhou Lin walked to the side of the clearing, with his furrowed eyes seemingly set on the future.

"Lightning is a powerful cosmic element, Jufeng. Like lightening, all elements are universal affinities and they were not things to be wielded by a mortal or immortal body. They could only be manifested in traces or sparks through a physical body. A true nascent soul could manifest these element to a certain degree. But for the elements to be fully manifested, it must be chanelled through something connected to the soul of a cultivator and also to the elements in the universe. A medium between the two."

He paused for a moment which seemed forever.

"A weapon! A weapon is connected to the soul of a cultivator and when it"s made with materials of the same element affinity as the cultivator? A weld. The only thing that can provide a full manifestation of elements. That"s why cultivators pay more attention to their weapons. The make of a weapon, the composition of a weapon can easily determine the outcome of a battle."

He turned his head to the side and looked at Jufeng.

"I tell you the truth Jufeng, to a cultivator, weapon means everything. A divine weapon will not look at your body technique before cutting you into pieces unless you have a divine body which might withstand it. A fire element divine weapon in the hand of a Ningchi cultivator will cut you into two talkless of incinerating you into nothingness despite you having higher level. Do you know why?

Master Zhou Lin slowly walked back to where Jufeng was still standing and sighed softly.

"Because of the weapon"s divinity. Even if the Ningchi cultivator don"t have the level to use its fire element against you, it will still cut you into many pieces if you meet it headon."

He flicked his hand and manifested his weapon. A glaive.

"This is Mujithar. I spent hundreds of thousands of years gathering the materials. It"s about not being in a rush as you make decisions on your weapon. Your weapon is part of your soul, part of your existence. Take your time. In the mean time, you can check the market, there are minor weapons you can get to be using. It makes you familiar with all these."

The weapon disappeared and master Zhou Lin turned towards the mountains.

"You can go now, i will see you later."

"Yes master. Master please can i ask for something?"

"Mhm. Go ahead."

"Master, i want to be in seclusion to meditate a bit since i just advanced to Zhuji."

"Hm. Thoughful of you. Yes, you can. You have the time needed. See you later then."

"Thank you master, thank you."

He told Yan and the other disciples quietly before heading towards his hillock. He would wait for a moment before making his way to the door without suspicion.

Time to see his homeworld.