Chapter 97: Lesser Celestial Realm

Just as I stood in front of the candle, my vision turned, though I was still in space, I was in deep space, where not even the stars shone, not even their light reached this dark void and empty place. But in front of me, there it stood, a creature that was as old as time, as big as the skies, and as unfathomable as this very endless space.

I looked the Primordial Dragon Snake in the eyes and it did the same to me. I had no way, no will no power and no possible way or method to face this thing, I was neither strong enough to fight it, fast enough to escape it, but at least, I was brave enough to face it. Not that I would manage such a feat if this was reality, something many of the people doing this very test failed to see, this was fake, all of it. it was nothing more than a test to face one's fears, and then in facing them, their hearts would grow stronger.

But here, though this thing frightened me, it was not a heart demon. It was not something like the many people here faced, this was not some insurmountable obstacle in my life that I'll need to work hard to overtake. This in front of me was an illusion, as the real thing, if it had stood this close to me, I would have died thousands of times over.

What's in front of me didn't even portray a fraction of a billionth of a fraction of the real terror that was swimming the deep space and was coming towards me. The Primordial Dragon Snake was an entity that was borne with the birth of this world, or so the Poison God had said.

I would never even dream of surviving if I were to face this creature with my current strength, and thus, I feared not, for if this illusion was my death, then I would die. But if this illusion was nothing but an illusion, then what is it to fear?

The creature in front of me opened its mouth, and I gazed upon it unmoved. It then dove on me and I remained unfazed, unperturbed. It engulfed me whole, as darkness, blacker than the depth of space submerged me, yet I didn't shudder, scream, fear or feel distress, I remained unmoving like a mountain.

I had seen the real, so how could the unreal ever have power over my heart?

Suddenly, I woke back up on the celestial road, and in front of me, there were no more candles.

"You've faced your fears, you've faced your death, and you still stand unperturbed, I know not of a man that has no fear, for those who have no fear are only the crazed, or gods, the probability of being the first is high, yet it doesn't exclude the latter. You have a long path ahead of you, cultivator."

In front of me a door opened up, it was made of gold and bronze, it had the depiction of fair ladies, brave men, dragons and phoenixes above it. The door opened up into a massive realm, where the ground was made of mix of gold and dark substance.

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This place was broad and wide enough that I couldn't fully see its end, and what made this place's sky was not the blue skies of the world, but rather the endless space.

***

Disciple of mine, ware! For you're in the lower Celestial realm.

This place here is good for cultivators who wish to cultivate their Qi into saint Qi, though you do not have the capability to do so, you should know that facing a creature that has been born here will be the end of you.

Get any treasures you can get, and escape from this place if you can!

***

The heck is going on? The moment I thought this, my body shuddered as I felt a weight far surpassing whatever I had pushing against me. My Sky Pearl almost threatened to break as it overworked itself in trying to fend of the assault, it turned extremely hot, hot enough that I felt that it would burn through my skull from the sudden pain. I forcefully shut down its defensive ability and finally was able to breath.

"What the fuck, was this a divine sense?!" I shuddered at the thought, someone's divine sense, this wasn't even an attack but it was powerful enough that I felt like an ant caught between the thumb and index of a giant.

Not only was my Sky Pearl unable to fend off this divine sense, it was as if this divine sense was powerful enough that all the inscriptions I had on the pearl were not nearly fractionally enough to contend nor even dare oppose it with the torturous illusions I had on it.

Whoever used their divine sense on me, disregarded my whole existence immediately, as if I was nothing but a fly on a piece of dung, unworthy of thought. Vexing, but if he thought such of me, then it would be best as I don't want any unwanted attention.

"Feel free to have whatever you may obtain from here. But do not be too greedy." The voice that accompanied me in this trail said.

I looked around and noticed that the whole place I was on was encompassed in a vast dome. It was barely shimmering against the golden ground of this Lower Celestial Realm.

I used my sword to travel though this celestial realm. As I moved, I saw many tumbled down palaces, buildings that should have been built using some extremely expensive materials, have all been destroyed due to time.

Space above the shimmering dome looked heavily distorted, the space was ripped, and from within these rips in space, came a purple wind that felt like it would tear me to atoms if I were to set foot outside this shimmering dome.

I didn't think about going out of the dome and decided that it would be best to try and inspect these ruins. Perhaps I could find something useful.

And so I started going from palace to palace, hoping to find anything, and I did, as a matter of fact, I found silver wear, glass wear and many other stuff, most looked older than time itself, but they were made from material that was no simple. These small utensils for example, they were made with Celestial Silver. It's far more amazing and more expensive than normal silver, and it can channel Qi with great efficiency, this very spoon in my hand could be exchanged for a city in term of value.

And there were many of them. I began sweeping the palace from the wears and continued on, from palace to palace. I even found some old rusty swords, but most of them were just used for decoration, there were no legendary swords or something amazing.

I continued looking through the palaces, and then I felt another surge of that same Divine Sense from before. Only this time it didn't focus on me and only went past me. I understood that many other disciples had entered this place, and if I were to stay here longer I'll probably end up meeting them. Since I was here first, they'll probably assume I have found something interesting, and we'll be in a standoff that I don't want to be in.

I decided to leave a few spoons and random materials, but anything else, I grabbed.

I have no idea why this Lord's Tomb gave us access to this Lower Celestial Realm, but I'm damn thankful, it seems that this is the first time the Lord's Tomb allowed anyone to access this area. And since it randomly takes the disciples to random places, I believe this is the first time in a few thousand years that any living being had sat foot in this place.

I continued moving through the lands until I felt that something was wrong. I have already been here a while ago. Looking back, I saw a couple cultivators coming my way, but they didn't even look at me, nor call me out. They just walked into a nearby palace, some every directly looked my way but there was no recognition of my existence.

Suddenly, one of them took a sudden turn and he completely disappeared, while the rest didn't even register their friend disappearing, they too followed after him and disappeared from my sight.

I was at a loss, what the heck was happening?

Soon more cultivators and demons came, but they all took random twists and turns, I even saw some of them walk right into walls, and out of them.

Something is wrong with this place, it's like there is a flaw in the law of space in this exact place.

And immediately after I thought about this, I had an epiphany regarding this place. This whole god dammed place was like a maze. It's compounded space, pieces of this celestial realm were actually folded atop each other.

I sat down and began thinking about this whole ordeal, I thankfully still remember the areas I went through, and as it seems, the only way for someone to come in contact with me is if they take the same steppes I did, or be extremely lucky and find a way into the space I'm currently in.

Also, it seems that I accidentally happened to be in a higher special chamber, yes, I'll call them that, Spatial Chamber. And since I'm in a higher Spatial Chamber I'm able to see them but they're not able to see me. Then, could this mean, that whoever used their divine sense earlier is already on an even higher Spatial Chamber than I?

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Well, laws of space aren't easy to understand, but so far, I have a little bit of comprehension of my current situation, though I highly feel that I'm trapped in this place.

I tried using my divine sense, but it immediately backfired, my divine sense spread at first like a globe around me, then it began spreading in long lines that turned and twisted everywhere and all over the place. It was like the moment I took a step there were hundreds of different paths and chambers that I would be taken to.

It's very strange but it feels like every step is an entrance to another branching path, only this path had hundreds of different exits, and every step I took, would lead me to a different place.

This maze is rather amazing, and I think I'll probably die here if I don't find a way out.

I can't take any careless steps, as I discovered the true danger of this place it would be unwise to take careless paths, so now, which path to take, and which way to go?