Higher realms

"Anyways. Back to the topic. In the upper realm a Martial King is already one of the top figures, especially a peak state one like our master.

But after we send our emergency signal he, who came to help us, since he was already in the vicinity, got stuck too. There was a barrier that stopped us from leaving the dungeon, while the way forward was blocked by these monsters.", here he shuddered. It seemed like the memories were still affecting him.

"Luckily for us, there was a safe zone around the dungeon entrance, which they were unable to enter, or we would have been slaughtered in merely a few seconds.

With no way back, nor forward, we could only stay there in the hope that someone would come to rescue us or that the blocked entrance would open.", he fell silent, deep in his memories of that time.

"And then one year later, someone once again entered the dungeon. When he first entered, we thought that another unfortunate person had come to join us. But to our surprise, this person seemed to have known what to expects, since he wasn't surprised by what he saw after entering. On the contrary the thing that seemed to surprise him were the people in the safe zone.

Out master, who was the strongest person trapped in the dungeon, then explained why everyone was there.

When the man heard our story, he surprisingly apologized to us and explained that this dungeon was a training ground of their sect, but because of something they had messed up while creating a new entrance, which had lead to us appearing in it. It was only now, that they had gone around on checking on this dungeon."

"Wait? How can a dungeon like this be a training ground?", Carl asked in surprise.

"That is because we weren't in the upper realm.", Joseph, sighed. "What we call the upper realm is only the realm directly above us. But above it there is once again another realm and then again and again. Nobody knows where it ends."

Everyone gasped when they heard that. While the upper realm wasn't unknown, neither of them had heard about the realms above it. Just imagine how strong the people in these realm's had to be.

"Anyways. What happened after that was kind of anticlimactic. The man who had entered the dungeon to check on it told us to wait for him to go get an elder of his sect, who would be able to send us back.

Soon he came back with the elder, who then with only a wave of his hand opened a portal which would send us back. But before he send us back, he removed any specific information about him and the other man, leaving only a vague impression. And from this impression I felt the similarity to Ivan."

"Then in his former life Ivan was...?"

"I don't know. It could have been the man, the elder or just the aura left on one of the objects on one of these twos. The only thing I'm sure of is that it wasn't something on the people who had entered from the upper realm."

"Then Ivan's former incarnation should be of a much higher realm, right?", Jenny asked in astonishment.

"It should be.", Joseph agreed.

"Whatever. It doesn't matter who he was before. It only matters who he is now.", Miranda said, breaking the others out of their reverie.

"Yeah. But what really worries me is, why he was in this realm?", Carl asked.

"Well, there is no way to know. So we shouldn't think about it to much. And I definitely won't change the way I treat him.", Jenny said forcefully.

"Right."

Just a little bit later at the Tang Mansion. This was an impressive mansion that was the home of the more than one hundred members of the main Tang family in this realm. It sprawled over more than 100 km² and consisted of a multitude of buildings, gardens and even a lake, surrounded by a high wall, which were the basis of a defensive formation, covering all of the mansion.

In the living room of one of the villas, directly at the lake, there were two man seated in comfortable chairs. Each of them had a mug of tee in their hands, from which they slowly took sips, while talking to each other.

"There are only five days left, until I have to leave.", the older man said mournfully.

"Haha, hearing you one may think that life in the upper realm is horrible.", the other man, who looked middle aged mocked.

"As if you didn't know. Why else would you have decided to come back here as soon as you could?", the older man stroked his white beard and retorted.

"I really envy you. Here it is so peaceful. There are rules everyone has to follow, unlike up there, where only the law of the jungle reigns. Sadly I wasn't born here, so I can only visit here for a few months every ten years."

The younger man nodded his head. Many from the upper realms Tang family, came to this realm in order to have a break. Sadly it wasn't that easy to come down here if one wasn't born here. Not only did one have to be especially invited, one could also only stay here for at most four moths each ten years. Besides that not just anyone could invite someone to come down here. No, the person had to be able to enter the upper realm, which was only possible if one had reached 1k in each stat. But even then one could only invite at most two persons each year. As such the amount of people being able to enter the realm was quite low.

"Have you finished everything then?"

"Yes, the only thing left is the situation with Lin."

The younger man nodded. Today his daughter had reported to him, that the situation of the prophecy had occurred and that she was planning to proceed as recommended.