Ch.6 - Empyrean Firmament

A minute passed and a woman in black robes appeared like a ghost.

She had teary eyes as she stared at Sarah's 'corpse.'

She walked over unsteadily and plopped down on the ground.

"My child…" She muttered in despair.

"Who did this…" She asked coldly a moment later.

"Who?!?" She yelled.

"It was an assassin… I think I saw him use a signature Ye clan technique…" Dalin explained softly.

*BOOM!*

Her aura exploded outward blasting the trees within a kilometer apart, and part of the mountain was also blasted apart. Her killing intent was so thick it turned into slaughter intent!

She wanted to slaughter the Ye clan in its entirety!

Glass in nearby villages, towns, and cities shattered, people's ears bled as they cried in pain, and animals also cried out in pain. Space itself even cracked in certain areas.

This was the horrifying might of a true champion realm existence in the lower layer!

This elder is actually the grand elder of the Hidden Palace whose status is even slightly superior to the palace master!

She considered Sarah her daughter…

She just sat there sobbing for several minutes as she picked up Sarah's limp body from Dalin's arms.

"Do you want revenge?" Dalin asked.

"Of course…" She muttered coldly.

"A debt of blood must be paid with blood…"

Dalin nodded.

"Sia." The grand elder voiced out, a woman appeared a moment later behind her.

"Yes, grandmother?" Sia, the sect master of the hidden palace replied.

"Contact those in the middle layer… Have them use heroes' descent… We're ending the Ye clan today…"

"Grandmother don't be rash!" Sia voiced out.

"Sarah was my child too… But many more of our children will die if we go to war with the Ye clan! They have over 500 heroes in the middle layer, while we only have 30!"

"Then tell the Exalt's and Saints to descend as half heroes as well…" She spat coldly.

Dalin's eyes narrowed drastically.

Even if an Exalt is suppressed to the half Hero Realm, their energy is still far denser than even a monstrous half hero and surpasses ordinary heroes, furthermore, their techniques aren't something that an ordinary hero can compare with at all!

To become an exalt one has to comprehend 3 laws! That means any attacks that use those elements are drastically enhanced, even as a half hero…

If an exalt were to descend they could wipe the floor with everyone in the lower layer!

If exalts are that terrifying then it goes without saying how terrifying it is for a saint to descend!

Furthermore, it sounds like they have more than 1!

Sia was stunned…

In the end, she hesitated before nodding. If they do this right, then they could wipe out the Ye clan before they got any reinforcements from the middle layer.

The grand elder spent an hour with Sarah's dead body before she burned it to ashes.

"Be free… my little butterfly, don't worry, I'll avenge you…"

She turned to Dalin. "I heard you reached the bronze rank in 1 day, furthermore I can sense your aura is very deep even by the standards of some elite bronze ranks and some silver ranks… Do you want to help?"

Dalin nodded with his fist clenched "I failed to rescue her in time… I arrived just as the assassin stabbed her throat. I want to repay this debt of blood as well."

She nodded, she waved her palm and a fruit appeared.

"This is the mortal gale fruit, it's a precious treasure from the top layer that can be used to increase one's cultivation without drawbacks. Even if you can only absorb 10% of its energy it should be enough for you to cultivate to the quasi-warrior realm. If you absorb 30% it should be able to make you a quasi-champion. As for the rest, it's extremely unlikely unless your bloodline comes from the top layer. However, if that is actually the case, then you should be able to become a quasi-hero."

Sia was stunned.

"G-Grand mother… Shouldn't you use that to reach the quasi-hero realm yourself?"

The grand elder shook her head. "It's useless to me… I've already had 3 which I gave to my other clones to reach the champion realm, but due to the spirit-soul feedback it still counts, so I've reached my limit on how many of them I can consume."

Sia hesitated but nodded in the end.

"Follow me, I'll take you to a cultivation room with a temporal formation."

"Temporal formation?" Dalin asked curiously. If he still had his memories from Earth he would be able to make an assumption since he knew what temporal meant, but those were sealed right now.

"A temporal formation creates a space where time flows faster than the world outside it. Its usually used by those at the saint realm in the middle layer and above for cultivating. Our sect has a singular formation created by one of the children we fostered 300 years ago after he descended once to visit us. Its effect isn't great and only accelerates time by 10% meaning for every 1.1 seconds in there, only a second passes outside, but that extra bit of time might be what you need." The grand elder explained as she controlled her emotions.

Her emotions would be a hindrance in the upcoming battle if she let them control her, instead, she wanted to use them to fuel her will to fight tomorrow… yes, tomorrow.

She led him to the cultivation room with a temporal formation, and activated it leaving him to his own devices, she didn't have time to care about him right now. She needed to prepare…

Like this, Dalin was left alone. The Empyrean flame scanned the temporal formation and discovered it also had an isolation effect, so it deemed it safe to restore Dalin's memories, at least for now. So it did just that.

Dalin's true self was reawakened and he nodded as his past memories and new memories synced up again under the guidance of the Empyrean Flame.

He greedily took a deep breath.

However, once his memories fully synced up he had a solemn expression.

'Wow… I actually started a war. Not bad alternate me. Although some Hidden Palace members might die because of it, it's full of opportunities to exploit…' Dalin thought. Although he felt pretty bad for using the Hidden Palace like this he didn't let it bother him.

This is why in the army he was called the heartless general. Because he only cared about what worked, not what was right or wrong. Though he did still follow the necessary laws to keep himself out of trouble, if they didn't exist he would have broken them.

Dalin shook his head, he knew it was time to begin cultivating. First, though, he wanted to learn a few techniques from the Flame Empyrean's Scripture.

The first was the first fist of the 9 mortal empyrean fists, the next was the 1st palm of the 9 mortal empyrean palms, and finally the first sword of the 9 mortal empyrean swords.

The 9 mortal empyrean swords is a mortal order technique designed to draw out some of the Empyrean Flame's power to use as the core of a sword made entirely from an Empyrean's internal energy. However, it didn't just require the Empyrean Flame and sufficiently pure internal energy… It also requires sword aura! Sword aura is created by achieving attainments in the sword, just learning a single sword skill successfully is enough to create a small bit of sword aura.

However, Dalin didn't want just any sword aura… He wanted Empyrean Sword Aura!

Dalin didn't know how to get this though, so he sat down and began thinking. The Empyrean Flame helped by speeding up his thoughts.

Eventually, Dalin began by deciding to think about what an Empyrean is.

By definition, according to the world of Empyreans, it's someone who can absorb energy from heaven and earth to strengthen themselves, extend their life span and perform abnormal feats. But in the world Dalin comes from, earth, theirs 2 more definitions for it.

Its adjective form means 'relating to the heaven or sky'.

Its noun form means 'Heaven, in particular, the highest point of heaven'.

Dalin felt pulled towards the noun form.

So he decided to focus on it.

'Heaven… What is it?' Dalin thought.

As far as he knew, there were several types of heavens. The will of the world is often called the heavens or the heavenly dao. But Dalin didn't think that was the limit of heaven…

Eventually, Dalin came to a conclusion…

'There is no heaven… Heaven is only what we want it to be. To stand at the peak of my heaven is to stand above all things… Fate, Destiny, Time, Space, Matter, Infiniteness and nothingness, light and darkness, life and death, to be an Empyrean is to stand above it all. It isn't just to stand at the peak of heaven, its to transcend anything and everything!'

Like that… Dalin's heart shattered instantly. Dalin clutched his chest in pain.

'W-Whats going on…' These were Dalin's last thoughts before he fell unconscious.

Dalin wasn't dead of course… He was just undergoing a transformation and a massive one at that.

*Rumble!*

A deep powerful rumble was heard from the sky as dark clouds gathered above the Hidden Palace. The roars of thousands of divine dragons were heard across the entire Ancient Violet Domain!

Several half-earth lords from the top layer didn't hesitate to suffer backlash by forcefully descending to the lower layer with clones at the half-hero realm.

They all had solemn expressions looking in Dalin's direction.

"By the gods…" One of them muttered in deep shock.

"The kid is comprehending Empyrean Firmament… Who the hell is he?"

Meanwhile, the Empyrean Dragon of Space, Locus, smiled, he didn't hesitate to flash over to the Ancient Violet Domain's lower layer with a clone at the Sky Firmament Realm, the pinnacle of the sky order, appearing like a phantom.

The half lords were shocked feeling the deep aura of Locus despite him restraining his aura.

"The young lord truly is impressive…" He muttered, but the half lords heard it.

A terrifying formation circle suddenly appeared in the sky, this formation wasn't made from profound runes though, no, these were made from Astral Runes! Astral runes are usually something only those 3 orders above the Divine Order can make!

Locus frowned 'He's too weak to overcome an astral tribulation… this world would be destroyed even if he did survive.'

He sighed. Suddenly a horrifying pressure descended onto Locus's clone as his cultivation rose drastically. Heavenly Order… Divine Order… Saint Order… Immortal Order… Astral Order… Stellar Order… Cosmic Order!

"Astral Lord of this region, do you mind giving me and my young master some face?" Locus calmly voiced out looking at the Astral Formation circle beginning to light up.

"Who are you to ask me to give you face?" A voice asked from the sky coldly.

"14 Empyrean Dragons, Empyrean Dragon of Space, Locus." Locus calmly voiced out completely disregarding this mere Astral Lord.

There was even contempt in his voice.

The astral circle froze for a moment.

"Nice Try, there's no way a member of the 14 Empyrean Dragons would follow someone as weak as him unless he was the flame empyrean. The flame empyrean is only scheduled to reappear in 500,000 years."

Locus grunted coldly.

He tried peaceful solutions, so now he would resort to force.

Billions of auras at the cosmic order were suddenly unleashed at the edge of the astral region and combined before converging upon the Ancient Violet Domain and slamming down on the astral formation in the sky. The astral formation was shattered like glass! All of those auras were from Locus's clones!

This was only a fraction of the horrifying might of the Empyrean Dragon of Space!

He grunted coldly looking to the sky "I understand your desire to remain unrivaled in your astral region, but I chose this region for him to be sent to because of how remote it is. I'm not saying to not give him tribulations, tribulations are necessary for one's growth, but don't make them impossible to defeat. Otherwise, I'll have no choice but to forcefully take your astral commandment and kill you, understand?"

The Astral Lord who was in this region's astral palace nodded while trembling in fear.

Locus snorted and disappeared. He really wanted to kill this region's astral lord, but he knew that Dalin needed to do that himself.

...

A/N:

Day 5! Hey everyone! I hope you're enjoying the book so far!

I've decided that I'll be splitting the 2k word chaps into 2 one thousand word chapters a day from day 7 onward until the 5th of July. This is because it will boost my book up in the algorithm since the webnovel algorithm also considers the release rate for recommendations from what I've seen.

(Noticed this from analyzing the analytics from 'rise of the origin emperor', [fun fact this book is me remaking that book but better] on the days that I released more than 1 chap a day I got more views.)

This is because I want more people to be able to enjoy it.

As usual, I highly appreciate power stones, collections(adding the book to your library), reviews, and any comments you may have!