Sitting in the lotus position on the cold stone floor of the arena's ditation area, I found myself in one of the strangest situation I'd experienced since arriving in this world.
My body was here, fully conscious and aware, while part of my spiritual will was off fighting in another dinsion entirely. It was like trying to read a book while having a conversation with soone else.
Usually, when I world-walked, my entire soul would transfer to the other realm, leaving my body in what appeared to be deep unconsciousness or even death-like stillness.
Anyone stumbling across during those tis would probably assu I was either in the deepest possible ditation or had suffered so kind of spiritual accident. Like the ti, I'd returned from the Two Suns world to find Liu Chang and Su Yue frantically checking my pulse, convinced sothing terrible had happened.
But this tournant thod was different.
Only a projection of my spiritual will had entered the inner world, while my main consciousness remained firmly rooted in my physical form. It allowed to multitask in a way that would be impossible for a mortal.
"Master," Azure's voice whispered in my mind, "this compartntalization technique is quite sophisticated. I suspect it's sothing you could learn to replicate for future world-walking expeditions."
"That would be useful," I replied internally, keeping one eye on Wu Kangming's battle while feeling my spiritual projection dodge another of Guo Xinyi's sonic attacks. "Though I have to admit, it's giving a headache."
The ntal strain was significant, but manageable. Thousands of hours of ditation had taught most cultivators how to partition their awareness, though usually not to this extent. I found myself grateful for all those boring hours spent learning to focus on multiple cultivation techniques simultaneously.
What I couldn't see, unfortunately, was my own battle.
The viewing screen that should have displayed the Realm of Living Lyrics remained stubbornly blank whenever I tried to focus on it, though I could tell from the excited chatter around that the spectators were definitely watching sothing interesting.
"Formation interference," Azure explained when I wondered about it. "The sect doesn't want participants observing their own fights. Too much potential for tactical advantage through real-ti analysis."
That made sense. If participants could watch themselves fighting from a third-person perspective, they’d not only have perfect situational awareness, but they’d be able to prepare for any trump cards that their opponent may be preparing.
But the other screens? Those were fair ga.
I let my gaze drift across the various displays, each showing a different inner world with its own unique characteristics. What struck most wasn't the exotic environnts or the creative techniques being used, but the sheer number of different Civilization Realm inner worlds the sect had access to.
"Azure," I said internally, "how exactly does the Azure Peak Sect have so many inner worlds available for tournants? This has to be like, what, over a dozen different Civilization Realm cultivators' personal dinsions?"
"Indeed, Master. It's quite an impressive collection, though perhaps not as surprising as it initially appears," Azure replied. "I've been cross-referencing what I observed with information from the sect library, and there's an interesting pattern."
I watched Wu Kangming navigate a world made entirely of different types of glass, each surface creating reflections and refractions that turned his sword techniques into a deadly light show. His opponent was having trouble with the environnt, but Wu Kangming was adapting with that ridiculous protagonist-level flexibility.
"What kind of pattern?"
"Most of these inner worlds belonged to enemies of the sect rather than allies. They were conquered and claid rather than donated or traded for."
That got my attention. "Conquered? You an the sect went around defeating Civilization Realm cultivators and stealing their inner worlds?"
"Not the current generation of leadership," Azure clarified. "This collection was primarily built during the reign of the previous Sect Master, Li Tianyu. According to the historical records, he was... quite the remarkable figure."
I shifted slightly on my ditation cushion, intrigued despite myself. "Tell about him."
On another screen, Luo Yichen was fighting in what looked like a perpetual thunderstorm, using his Mirrorwater Sword to absorb lightning strikes and redirect them at his opponent. Kid was getting scary good with that technique.
"Li Tianyu's story reads like sothing out of a cultivation novel," Azure began, and I could practically hear the amusent in his voice. "Born to a mortal farming family in a small village, showed no particular cultivation talent as a child, was actually rejected by three different sects before Azure Peak finally accepted him as an outer disciple."
"Let guess," I interrupted, "he was looked down on, bullied, called trash, the usual protagonist origin story?"
"Exactly. For the first few years, he advanced at a completely ordinary pace. Seventh son of a farr, no bloodline advantages, no ancient artifacts, no mysterious ntor. Just another average disciple destined for diocrity."
I watched another battle where so girl was fighting in what appeared to be a world made entirely of flowing water, except the water defied gravity and ford impossible geotric shapes in the air. Her opponent kept trying to use fire techniques, which was working about as well as you'd expect.
"But then sothing changed?" I prompted.
"At age nineteen, his cultivation suddenly exploded. He went from Qi Condensation Stage 4 to Stage 9 in one month. Broke through to Elental Realm before his twentieth birthday. Stellar Realm at twenty-one. Life Realm at twenty-four. And Civilisation Realm at thirty.”
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“That's... that's completely insane,” I blinked. "Even by protagonist standards, that advancent speed is ridiculous."
"The records don't specify what caused the sudden change, but from that point forward, Li Tianyu was essentially unstoppable. He conquered rival sects, defeated rogue cultivators, and according to so accounts, single-handedly turned Azure Peak from a second-rate regional power into one of the major sects of the Eastern Continent."
That explained a lot about the sect's current resources and reputation.
"What was his cultivation thod?" I asked, expecting nothing less than a Beyond Heaven technique.
"Unknown. The sect library has biographical information about his accomplishnts, but the actual techniques he used were apparently either lost or classified beyond our access level. What I can tell you is that whatever he practiced, it allowed him to collect inner worlds from defeated enemies rather than just destroying them."
I found that detail particularly interesting. Most cultivation thods I'd encountered were focused on personal advancent. The ability to claim and preserve entire worlds from others suggested sothing much more sophisticated.
"So, what happened to him? I'm assuming he's not still around, or he'd probably be running the sect instead of Yuan."
"The records beco vague about his final fate," Azure admitted. "So sources claim he achieved transcendence and ascended to a higher realm. Others suggest he fell during a particularly severe tribulation. There are even so texts that hint he simply vanished one day, leaving behind only his collected inner worlds and a letter naming Yuan as his successor."
Ah, transcendence.
Every xianxia story seed to have a different interpretation of what that actually ant.
So treated it as achieving true immortality and godhood within the current realm.
Others described it as breaking free from the constraints of the current world entirely and ascending to a higher plane of existence.
Then there were the versions where transcendence ant rging with the Dao itself, or becoming one with the universe, or even just advancing beyond the need for physical form.
The variety was honestly exhausting.
But the most common interpretation, and the one that made the most sense given what I'd experienced, was the idea of literally moving to a higher world.
An example of that would be if Mo Yuhang sohow managed to break free from the Realm of Living Lyrics and manifest in the cultivation world as an independent being, that would be his form of transcendence.
Following that logic, cultivators in this world might eventually find ways to escape to whatever higher realm contained them.
"You know," I mused to Azure, "I'm actually curious what kind of energy system a higher realm would use. I'm already having fun experinting with qi, red and blue sun energy, and lower forms like harmonic essence. Just imagine how interesting an energy type that's even more fundantal than qi would be."
"Assuming such a thing exists," Azure replied. "Though given the hierarchy we've observed, with qi commanding lower forms and the sun energies showing their own unique properties, it does seem likely that there could be sothing even more powerful."
Our philosophical speculation was interrupted by a sudden shift in my consciousness. I felt my spiritual manifestation beginning its return journey from the Realm of Living Lyrics, erging from the portal and preparing to rge back with my main awareness.
The process was smoother than I'd expected.
Since I'd maintained conscious awareness of everything happening in the inner world, there was no jarring integration of mories or experiences. Instead, it felt more like closing a book I'd been reading.
What I was interested in, however, was the small concentration of harmonic essence that my spiritual projection had managed to bring back with it. The musical energy felt alien compared to qi, vibrating in patterns that my cultivation base didn't naturally recognize but found oddly appealing.
I directed the foreign energy toward my inner world, curious to see how the Genesis Seed would react to yet another new form of power.
The mont the harmonic essence entered my inner world's atmosphere, the Genesis Seed began resonating with it, drawing the musical energy into its root system with obvious interest. But rather than simply absorbing and converting the essence like it had done with other foreign energies, the tree seed to be learning from it.
Within minutes, I could feel changes spreading throughout my inner world's plant life.
The Moonlight Clover in my garden quadrant began swaying gently, despite the absence of any wind.
The Azure Bellflowers started producing a soft, barely audible humming that harmonized perfectly with the realm's spiritual energy circulation.
Even the Shadow Ferns were rustling in rhythmic patterns that suggested they were moving to the beat of so unheard music.
"Master," Azure said with obvious excitent, "the plants are incorporating musical principles into their growth patterns. This could revolutionize how we approach cultivation techniques."
"Get started on analyzing it," I said, genuinely interested in the possibilities. "If we can figure out how to replicate so of those musical cultivation thods using qi instead of harmonic essence, it could give us entirely new categories of techniques."
"Already beginning the analysis," Azure replied. "Though I suspect it will take considerable ti to develop practical applications."
That was fine by . I didn’t expect to have magical scrolls joining in battle anyti soon.
I opened my eyes and began to stand up from my ditation posture, ready to observe the conclusion of the other battles and prepare for whatever ca next.
But before I could settle into a comfortable viewing position, I noticed soone approaching across the arena floor.
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