After every ending there is a new begining

Swoosh

Accompanying the sound of a slight disturbance in the wind was the soft sound of two feet landing on grass. It was a young man with a handsome visage, jet black medium long hair with an attractive face fatal to women, yet masculine enough to bring the ire of men, his ice cold obsidian eyes not taking away from his charm but adding a slight cold aura.

The first thing light noticed was the energy in the air. It felt amazing to breathe in, grades above what he was breathing in the Jossflame planet. He inhaled deeply and let out a turbid breath of air. "If only you could've been here with me my dear." A slight sense of sadness flashing in his eyes before it was quickly washed away by cold indifference.

The slight sound of gravel grinding in the distance could be heard. Sending out his spiritual sense he could see a small golden carriage with beautiful artisan designs driven by a single servant.

Light walked to the gravel road waiting for the carriage to pass by. As the carriage got closer he could sense their auras. The servant was an early foundation establishment cultivator and there were two auras of the 3rd and 7th layer of qi condensation coming from inside the carriage.

To have a driver as a foundation establishment warrior he had to take his precautions. To avoid being suspicious he stood in the open. The carriage soon neared as the middle aged driver took a single glance at Light. 

"Stop." A young woman's soft voice rang out from inside the carriage. Light raised his eyebrows a little in surprise, both at this sudden call to stop and the fact that it was a familiar language to him.

"Are you newly ascended?"

"...yes." Light paused for a moment, not responding before realizing there was no point in denying it. He knew no information about this world, and he had to interact with people sooner or later.

"Would you like to come with us to the nearest city?"

"Sure." As he walked towards the door of the carriage he eyed the driver, who had his eyes closed seemingly not worried in the slightest.

'The people in this carriage must have means to guarantee their safety, or maybe there is a hidden expert I cannot sense?' As he thought this the door to the carriage opened and he made his way in.

There were two couches on either side of the three meter carriage. The one towards the end of the carriage was occupied by a veiled young woman with beautiful brown eyes in a phoenix robe. With a short young boy sitting next to her with similar brown eyes, in a robe with flame patterns and the insignia of a phoenix.

"Hey mister what planet did you come from?" The young boy spoke up.

"..." Knowing all the events he went through, this was a question he could not answer.

"Don't be rude." The young woman chided as the little boy gave a pout.

"Im Huo ling, this is Huo Feng. We are part of the Huo clan of Rising Phoenix city, it's the nearest city and the one we are heading to."

"My name is Light."

"What about your last na-" before the young boy could speak, the young woman cut him off.

"You must have many questions about this world. Feel free to ask any."

Many questions appeared in his mind but a few settled from the rest.

"What is this world called and where are we right now?"

"We are in the blue pearl world and this is the Ye kingdom of the eastern province. There are five provinces being the eastern province, the western province, the southern province, the northern province and the central province."

"What is the strongest level of cultivation in this world?"

"...I cannot say for sure, but the strongest known cultivators in the eastern province are in the golden core realm, one large realm above foundation establishment realm, the realm you are at right now."

The woman answered, assuming Light didn't know about the cultivation realms beyond his own.

'Only one major realm huh. I wonder how my strength compares against normal foundation establishment cultivators. First I need to get a stable foundation though.'

The woman and Light continued the process of exchanging questions for answers as the carriage made its way to the Rising Phoenix city. Through this Light gained additional valuable information.

First, he learned that the strongest power in the city was a golden core cultivator and it was the head of her Huo clan. The city was divided into three powers. The Huo clan, the Bai clan and the Li clan. With her Huo clan being the only power with a golden core cultivator thus taking its position as the strongest power.

Second, as the second strongest realm in the city, foundation establishment cultivators were considered strong, but only middle and late foundation establishment cultivators. There seemed to be a significant gap in status between early middle and late foundation establishment cultivators.

Third, though rare, sometimes ascended would arrive all over this planet. They were sought after because they belonged to no powers and could be recruited. This matched his guess as to why they would take him with them, after all people couldn't simply be kind right?

"Brother what element do you cultivate? I am a fire cultivator!"

"I cultivate lightning." Light answered after giving it a quick thought. Saying he was a cultivator of all elements might bring unnecessary attention, he did not understand all the norms of this world, and if he didn't have the strength to protect himself he needed to be cautious.

"Lightning? That's pretty rare, that's like the Imperial clan."

'So the imperial clan cultivates lightning?'

The carriage slowed down. He could hear the sound of a gate opening as well as the sound of people. He didn't extend his spiritual sense as he didn't want to be rude. Earlier he did because he had to but now with a guide there was no need.

"We've reached the city, we can help you get a temporary space to live. If you want to join our clan you are always welcome." Huo Ling said.

"Thank you, I appreciate your kindness."

As the carriage came to a halt before an inn. Light stepped out. It was a small but well taken care of residence. The innkeeper, an old man with a hunched back, walked out. The driver tossed him a pouch as if instructed to.

"This is the play for him to stay here for a month, find him a room." He spoke in an ordering tone.

"Yes sir. Come with me please." The old man spoke as he turned around.

Light turned to the carriage and gave a slight bow thanking them again, before following the old man. He understood that they were being kind to recruit him, but kindness was nice nonetheless.

As he entered the inn the old man gave him a second glance out of the corner of his eye very quickly seemingly out of curiosity. However, Light affected by the seal of grief could feel slight negative emotions towards him.

'Does he have animosity towards the Huo clan?' He wondered as he followed the old man. Putting his guard up ready if something went wrong.

The old man soon walked down a hallway and stopped at a room at the end of the hall.

"This will be your room, but make sure to find a way to pay me after this month or I will have no choice but to kick you out." Leaving those words the old man left heading back towards the front of the inn.

Light entered the room and closed the door behind him. Looking around it was a small one room space with a private bathroom. There was a simple single bed in the corner with a small window that showed the outside street bustling with activity. Light walked towards the bed and sat down in a lotus position. He couldn't put off consolidating his cultivation any longer, he also had the seal on the sword he needed to take care of.

With the requirements to unseal the sword met, he only needed a thought for the process to commence. Inside his sea of consciousness, with a slight sword hum the seal unraveled and the tip of the sword became corporeal. As if revived, a feeling of vitality filled the sword as it shined a beautiful white light. Along with it was the information and rewards for completing the first seal. 

There were three rewards, they were two cultivation techniques and the third was the collection of various elemental techniques and sword techniques that were suited to Light. The first one was the yin yang fusion cultivation manual, it balanced both light and dark energies which were usually conflicting to remain in harmony and instead strengthen one another. The other manual was the yin yang body tempering manual. Using the darkness and light to temper one's physique one could enhance their strength and regeneration. 

Each element had its strong points. Fire had his destructiveness, water had its permanence, earth had its defense, wind had its speed, and lightning had its explosiveness. Darkness and light were slightly different. Light had both offensive and supportive qualities. It could restore but it could also annihilate. Darkness had two qualities, tainting and absorption.

The sword seemingly knew his cultivation situation and gave him exactly what suited him. 'Maybe the requirements to unlock the seal was a way of determining what was best for me.' The seal also released more detailed information about the realms of cultivation. 

As learned before every realm from foundation establishment to above were divided into nine layers, the first three being early, the next three being middle and the last three being late. The next requirement to unlock a seal was to reach the Spirit formation realm, the realm above the nascent soul realm. This matched up with his cultivation techniques which were meant to be used up until the nascent soul realm.

The last piece of information he learned was how to use the sword to cultivate. Well more accurately it was that the sword was a treasure to increase cultivation speed, being passively active as soon as the seal opened. It would also act as a defensive treasure against soul attacks, though it acted according to its instincts and couldn't be controlled. For now, these were the two applications of the treasure he was limited to.

After Light processed all the information and looked quickly over the techniques he was given. He made a mental note of a few to practice and began to consolidate his cultivation.

Though he was technically a foundation establishment cultivator, he hadn't yet entered the first level. One had to temper their body and soul one time to be considered a first layer foundation establishment cultivator.

Cycling the yin yang cultivation technique according to the instructions he turned his inner sea into a yin yang symbol. The elements and the white sword were in harmony in the white half, and the darkness energy in the other. As it began to rotate, he could feel energy sucking in at a frightening rate. The lock on the window snapped off as it swung open by its latches energy pouring in through the created opening. Even the door began to rattle as energy drilled its way in through any small openings..

Inside his body he could feel darkness and light, as well as a little bit of the elements tempering his entire body. Every part of his body, his organs, down to his every cell were undergoing vast changes. His skin became smoother and younger, more and more like jade. His muscles became more defined and toned, lean yet brimming with strength. After about thirty minutes The transformation ceased and Light opened his eyes.

'Incredible, I feel at least twice as strong as before, and the speed of energy circulation is incredible, I feel like I am one with the atmosphere.' Though Light did not know it, this was a state called permanence, a connection with the energy of the world, one that not many would be fortunate enough to experience.

Getting up he looked at the broken window with a wry smile. He would need to get it fixed. Rumble 

With that noise a strong sensation of hunger hit him, while cultivators didn't need to eat as often as mortals, cultivating took a lot of energy. Getting up he left his room and headed towards the street.