Sighing in relief, Gu Yuntian's youthful face relaxed. "I was worried you would say otherwise. I have been waiting for years, after all. If you said no, I would have done it forcibly and made you a slave to the sect…"
Ethan choked on air.
This person seemed as powerful as the heavens themselves but just as straightforward. Thinking of it, even the board outside said he won't talk with men and only women… this man really seemed a bit too straightforward. He didn't seem like an old man.
Gu Yuntian was supposedly billions of years old and had even seen the annihilation of his own sect. That must make people serious and cold, right?
He had been too warm for such a person. If that made sense.
Ethan wondered.
Maybe it was just that the man was relieved. He just wanted this to end quickly. Regardless, speaking with this man was so easy. Maybe it was because of the place they were in that made every one of them calm.
"Senior Brother," Ethan took the shameless approach and asked, "So, what do I have to do to become as strong as you?"
"Immortal Cultivation," Gu Yuntian appeared a bit paler but he was calm. "You have to practice Immortal Cultivation, refine your body, and refine your spirit. The Ring you stole from my hand is a Dimensional Pocket on its own. It doesn't have any materials and such since I had to use them to make this ship survive for this long without anyone manning it, but it has notes in it that would teach you the Dimension Sect's Cultivation methods."
Ethan took a deep breath, and he exchanged a glance with Scarlett, who was silent. After a bit of thought, he asked Yuntian, "So if I cultivate, I can grow stronger?"
"Yes, cultivation is the basis of everything."
Ethan couldn't help but ponder.
He wished he had read stories of Immortal Cultivation that were all around on Earth. Maybe that might have helped here. Atleast, it seemed like those stories.
Did such fantasy stories have a root in such universal-level entities, too? Maybe even that was spread around due to their influence. It could be another way of getting more new blood. Maybe the authors of such novels were all just messengers.
Yet, if that was anywhere true, that also meant Immortality wasn't impossible.
"…Is Immortality real?" Ethan asked.
Raising an eyebrow, Gu Yuntian sighed. A long, lengthy silence stretched between them, and Yuntian became paler until Ethan started seeing through him to what was behind him.
"My Master had an infinite lifespan. No diseases could kill him…" A wretched appearance briefly flashed through the charismatic youth before it returned to calm. "Yet he died. I do not know if Immortality is real, but if you reach his level one day, you might come to learn it."
Ethan bowed slightly. He knew he had asked something painful.
"No matter, I will send you outside the Forbidden Land. The recipe to create a Pill of Comprehension is inside; just find the appropriate materials and refine it yourself. You and your wife shouldn't start cultivating before you each eat one.
"And let me warn you, the Devour Sect might be still alive in this world, so you should keep her hidden. They are not in search of new disciples like us by sending out their Heritage.
"What they want is more people to devour, but I already cut off any links the sect had on her. So she should be safe as long as you don't reveal her abilities too outrightly and become a spotlight."
After that, calmly, the youth gave Ethan many advices.
And then, with his help, both Ethan and Scarlett, along with him, floated outside the ship in the air of the Forbidden Land Sea of Leviathans and looked down at the ship.
Melancholically, Yuntian waved his hand, and the ship vanished. It appeared in Ethan's Dimensional Pocket, making him shocked and awed.
'This person really was invincible... He even had the ability to tap into my Dimensional Pocket. And he even put in something as big as a ship into it, whereas a small boat is my limit...' Ethan couldn't even come close to grasp how far of a difference they had between them.
Then time arrived…
Both Ethan and Scarlett stood in the air, feeling nervous but extremely grateful, and bowed, both of them feeling a weird sense of pity. As the man waved once more, a doorway made of light appeared in the air, and both of them stepped into it. A profound feeling of a great encounter passed through them.
They had an encounter with something that people on Earth could never understand. Ethan, on the other hand, was lost in thought. Unlike the time he was in that garden that calmed him down, he was no longer so calm, and even Scarlett, who had remained silent whole throughout the process, was far from calm.
Just as they appeared in another place, a heavily shadowed area, Scarlett took deep breaths. "Tell me, Ethe, what the hell were you speaking with that person?"
Ethan was a bit startled. "What?"
"You really didn't realize that was not English," Scarlett said with a bit of fear. "That was some alien language, and you were speaking so fluently."
Ethan couldn't help but wryly chuckle. No wonder she was so silent. With a sigh, he said seriously, "Don't show disrespect, he is my Senior and a great man."
So, language was also included in his Heritage. Now, he would have to explain all that had happened to her.
Even after everything that he gave them, Gu Yuntian only had one humble wish from Ethan, which startled him. According to his words, if another cultivator on the level of Yuntian's Master helped, they could revive the whole sect, and even the dead master could be revived.
Yuntian didn't ask Ethan himself to achieve that level; that was too far-fetched. He asked Ethan to create a sect where there was a hope of someone like that being born. It was not as far-fetched.
They looked at the new place.
A dark forest full of black-leaved trees.
Meanwhile, Gu Yuntian floated in the skies of the Forbidden Land, his tears falling as he looked at a creature. A leviathan that had colossal tentacles whipping about.
"The forgotten ones shall return," He wiped his eyes with his robes. "We even got two good seedlings for the start."
Like broken mirrors of glass and light, he vanished.
A deep moan echoed from the ocean bed, filled with heart-wrenching sadness and helplessness. Slowly, the creature sank into the water and vanished.
Like a dead world, everything returned to stillness, and another storm soon followed. Yet, there was no ship to endure it anymore.
A young merman poked his head out of the dark waters and soon vanished back in.
Trees stretched far into their horizons. Black leaves danced above them in the wind, and many birds flew around; it was night, but unlike the Sea of Leviathan, in the dome of heaven stood trillions of stars.
Ethan and Scarlett looked up at the heavens and felt profoundly shaken. Silence reigned like a malevolent spirit above them, far from home, far from Earth, in a world unknown.
To see the heavens again felt so strange. Foreign.
The stars were so different, yet in the end, just as distant. And in the sky, in the middle of their perception, stood a curved moon.
They briefly exchanged a glance, filled with profound meaning and understanding, before they held each other's hands tightly. They were still here. They were not alone.
Just like their orphan childhood, they were all they needed.
"Scar…" Ethan said, looking at his free hand. "All of the Dimensional Marks I left on Earth… I can no longer feel them. Even the Marks I left on that dark ocean seems too far now, I can't feel them either."
Scarlett nodded.
It had been about half an hour since they were helped to arrive here, and they had just been silently gazing at the sky. He had yet to even tell her about what he and Gu Yuntian had discussed earlier.
They were lost at the sight of the sky.
After arriving, they had already noticed that their powers were weaker now—unlike Earth or the Forbidden Region, Ethan could barely teleport to places his eyesight reached. And each Teleport left him heaving.
This new world—where they had appeared—seemed to have space in itself stronger, more robust than anywhere they had ever been to. Scarlett also grew tired more easily.
Their stamina, which used to be quite good, was just so meager here.
Even though they weren't much weaker in a battle, they were far less enduring. At the same time, though, Ethan had a mystical inheritance in his hand. Literally.
The jade that proved the discipleship of the Dimensional Immortal Sect and the Space Ring, which was also another Dimensional Pocket on its own, filled with a library of books, was still safe in his hand.
He had already checked the books, and they were all details regarding cultivation. A way of growing stronger and gaining more lifespan. With the goal of one day achieving immortality. A step-by-step process.
There were also many pill recipes and many other things, including the Pill of Comprehension that he was told to consume before he began this whole process of cultivation.
Regardless, he kept it all aside for now to check after reaching somewhere familiar and safe.
After a bit of rest and a serving of Mac Burgers, both of them walked for a long time eastwards.
Their steps were calm and poised.
What had happened and what was new was in his mind running marathons, but he explained his conversation with Gu Yuntian, and Scarlett listened with untamed curiosity.
Cultivation? Did he get an inheritance?
Were they rich on day one?
She couldn't help but laugh. Making him laugh alongside.
It felt weird to walk hand in hand for so long, but it was not too bad. She liked it. Now, all she needed was a warm bath, and she would feel right at home. And then there was that first night of theirs.
She felt wracked with anticipation of what this world would be like.
Then, they walked and walked.
…
Surrounding the dark forest that Ethan and Scarlett were in was a great dark wall. It was way beyond the size of even the Great Wall of China. It was like a coiling snake around the whole dark forest.
If someone looked closely, they would know that it was impossible for something that entered the forest to leave. Like a bubble, an invisible layer surrounded the atmosphere above the forest, completely blocking the people's entrance and way out.
If birds or such tried to leave, they would hit a field of nothing and then, as if electrocuted, burst into flames and die. On the walls, soldiers often walked around, yawning in boredom or reading scrolls in sitting places.
…
Ethan and Scarlett found their way through the forest and soon saw the Great Wall in the distance.
As they closed in, he released his Dimensional Senses and was irritated once more—he could only release the senses as far as 10 meters now. It was impossible to go beyond it.
He used to be able to go more than 60 to 70 meters previously. Even 100 wasn't too hard.
But as his Dimensional Senses moved around the wall, he felt a weird prickling sensation of discomfort, a sensation akin to stomach rumbling about to vomit.
He made Scarlett stop in her tracks and looked up at the Great Wall's top. He couldn't see it; it was way too big. All he could see was the bright night sky.
"I think this wall is somehow dangerous," he said, awed at the size.
Scarlett, still digesting every part of Gu Yuntian's conversation with Ethan, looked at the wall, and she couldn't help but be awed, too. She shook his hand in hers.
"Can you teleport past it?"
Ethan expanded his Dimensional Senses through the wall, trying to reach beyond it, but sighed. "The wall is thicker than ten meters. It's impossible. And I have this weird feeling that I can't teleport beyond it anyway…"
Even his Dimensional Senses seemed to have been interrupted in the middle of it, so how can his Dimensional Travel work clearly?
He doubted it would be any good. He was much more cautious about this world than Earth.
Having worn the beautiful ring on his fingers now, he delved into it like he would enter his Dimensional Pocket.
He planned to give the ring to Scarlett, but not now. He had yet to move all those books inside it into his own Dimensional Pocket. And Scarlett had yet to learn how to enter it with a thought. He could do it instinctively, like talking the language of Gu Yuntian, but she couldn't.
But he was not worried; there were ways mentioned in one of the books for her to learn to do that.
He checked around the books with his consciousness; just like the Dimensional Pocket, he had an almost omniscient understanding of the things inside. It was easily sortable.
A book came into sight.
[Dimensional Blockages]
He took it out and read it.
"Teleportation at the Mortal Heritage Stage cannot help you go through Spell Formations of any sort; if you attempt to forcefully move through it, you will be sliced to pieces."
A cold chill went through him.
So if he tried Teleporting, he would have died?
What are these Spell Formations in the first place?
"Spell Formations—a unique way of using World Essence in a way that makes it possible for powerful cultivators to plant magical powers, protective or offensive methods, in a set place.
"It works using World Essence as an energy source and only requires maintenance between months. They range from offensive to defensive, and many more. There are even Teleportation Formations that the Dimensional Sect is considered to be the best at."
Ethan was speechless. He barely escaped death.
And his Teleportation had such a weakness?
That was new to him.
Curious, the girl at the side bugged him, and he looked at her.
"So basically, Scar, someone placed a trap here. A magical trap, and there must also be people looking after it. We can't teleport through it…"
They had to find another way, but it was unnecessary to be so hurried.
He decided he might as well research the books in his hand at a safe place in the dark forest. Scarlett didn't have much of an opinion.
She just wanted him to give her a bathtub, which he had in the random assortment of things scattered across his own Dimensional Pocket.
"I'll bathe you," he said with a smirk. He tightened his grasp over her pearly hands.
To which she shrugged.
He took a deep breath. "This place must be a dangerous one since there is a wall like this here... Let's do a little scouting first before anything else."
Welcome, Fellow Daoists, to the Immortal World!
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