The Crystal Pagoda [1]

Ju Feng had been training intensely for two solid years, following a set of ways that gradually became his routine. His body strength and power had grown beyond weighted measures for his age level of cultivation. Without the use of Chi, his strength could easily surpassed that of a cultivator of the Ningchi stage.

This very knowledge had to be preserved since there were quite a number of cultivators who could cause him troubles just for their awareness of its existence.

There was great effect on his spiritual aura which was more than imposing for his age, and on the level of the Chi in his dantian which was of high amount. It really amazed him that he could feel his own dantian and meridians expanding, and felt a vast amount of Chi flowed through his own meridians during circulation. This was significantly different from that of two years ago. He couldn't have asked for a better cultivation method. To him, the astral manuscript was indeed a divine treasure.

In the space of two years, he had advanced to the middle stage of Chi refining. Although generally, advancement at the early stages was more faster than the later stages. True immortal cultivation would start from the Zhuji, the foundation stage. From there, advancement would be much more slower and would require enlightenment—insight into the universal existence. For some cultivators on the mortal plane, it could take hundreds of years to advance from an early stage to middle stage of Zhuji.

On the mortal plane, the most difficult was the completion of the nascent soul formation which could take several millions of years. From the ascension stage—the Shenxian stage of the myths— it could take hundreds of millions of years just to advance from the early stage of Shenxian to its middle stage.

Creation really had a stronghold on godhood.

Although he was happily thinking about his cultivation, his mind was greatly worried due to his mother's predicaments. He knew his mother had things bothering her lately, but couldn't say exactly what they were. Nonetheless, those things were beginning to worry him too. Could it be the rite of judgement? Or, the fact that they were the targets of the daemons' attack? It could even be something else entirely.

Ju Feng had been less worried about himself. He thought he had neither friends nor foes, until the events of the lunar plain crossed his mind which caused him to recoil a bit. He truly had dangerous foes who wanted him dead. Immortal foes for that matter!

Heavens tears!

What kind of world would the very life of a child be in mortal danger? Marked for death?

He had to get stronger to be able to defend himself and his family. Here at home, despite all the benefits of their ancestral cultivation technique, there were less things for him to learn. His family were fire affiliated cultivators, while the titan lord was a terra elemental. He had to go to where he would be able to learn more about his own affinities.

He had discussed with his family about him joining a sect where he would be able to learn and associate with kids from other places. They had readily agreed with him since they too had already thought about the same thing. They had decided it would be a great experience for him to see the bigger, outside world, and gain more knowledge. As he stretched himself on his bamboo bed, getting ready to sleep, he remembered the words of the titan lord.

"Knowledge is the key to true power. Learning, and opening the heart to the knowledge gained, are the foundations of true power."

On the beautiful and bright morning of the following day, Ju Feng woke up as before, and after washing his face, went directly to the training ground. He had finished mastering the basics of the shifting heavens hand technique. Although it was a simple technique, it's efficient enough in a lower-level combat. Hence, he decided to resume his training on the sword technique—the Skylight.

With weapons, mystical art was the pinnacle. All mystical arts are affiliated with the elements of nature, thus, cultivators must be attuned to their elements to use their mystical arts. A weapon without the mystical arts is of little or no use.

Ju Feng started training the sword technique but he was lacking the focus. He was still on the first level of the technique— Heavens Asunder— so he tried to concentrate on the training, but his mind kept wandering off. Not wanting to stop the training, he decided to let his mind wander freely. With his mind off his training, he didn't notice when the edge of the sword nicked one of his left finger. But due to the state of his strong body, it would take some time for traces of blood to show.

After finishing his sword training, he left for the cultivation chamber. He needed to calm his mind from the raging thoughts that were distracting him. How could he find peace in his heart? He arrived to find his mother in the cultivation chamber deep in meditation. Looking at his mother's face, he could see signs of anxiety on her face. Having decided not to disturb her, he made his way to his room where he sat in a cross-leg, and started breathing using the soul serenity method.

As his mind began to calm down, he closed his eyes to meditate. Then suddenly, he remembered the crystal pagoda his grandmother said was good for meditation. Ju Feng took out the pagoda and placed on the floor in front of him. Adjusting the position of the pagoda with his left hand, he didn't see the tiniest trace of blood that touched the pagoda. Yet, he felt a tingle in his hand which he casually shrugged off.

Closing his eyes, he began to meditate and didn't know when he fell into a trance. Still in trance, he saw the pagoda giving off a faint glow, and reached out his hand. As soon as his hand touched the pagoda, he vanished. Finding himself in a very strange place, he looked around in confusion and panic. He had the feelings he knew this particular place, but from its appearance, was totally unfamiliar.

"What is this place?"

"Childling, you are back again."

"Who's there?"

Ju Feng asked in a quivering voice, but was met with extreme silence that stretched for minutes before the voice sounded again.

"The crystal mark. That changes everything."

"Please, who are you? where am I?"

"You do have the crystal mark, and that can only mean one thing. You are now the holder of this gateway. Under this condition, necessity is placed upon me to attend to you, childling."

Sighed the voice, and with a shrilling sound, a figure appeared in front of Ju Feng. A frail-looking old man, of average height, wearing a white robe of distorting ripples.

"My name is Hypathos. One of the ten Ouranias, and we are the keepers of the gates to all the planes of existence."

Ju Feng who was lost for words, glanced nervously at the old man who simply continued talking.

"The gateways were created at the beginning of creation, and we were created to watch and guide them. They are our domains, that's why we have absolute power over them. No living entity can use our gateways to cross into any plane without the right of passage. It's very important that we maintain this."

With his ancient yes observing Ju Feng, the old man continued.

"Do you ask why? You see, childling. The gateways are direct passages to all the planes of creation. It leads to twelve planes of existence. There are four planes in this universe, four planes in the primordial chaos and one known as the conjecture, the place where the paths of all entities meet. This gateway here, is one of the passages to all of them."