The World without Heights (Flashback)

In the Pure Yang lord's past life, long after he had ascended to the peak of Martial Saint realm, he went on dangerous expeditions across the different realms hoping to find ways to improve himself and the key to breaking into the Martial Emperor realm.

He had ventured into unstable worlds, searched through ancient ruins and even plundered cursed tombs.

"No luck here" he muttered one day while strolling through a collapsing ruin in an unstable world. then..

Crimson arcs of lightening streaked across the firmament like divine whips without any prior warning. The wind howled in an unnatural manner.

"Not good—this isn't a normal storm!"

He hurriedly used his cultivation powers and powerful protective treasures. After struggling with all his might against the natural disaster for hours, he came out of it albeit with injuries.

But he didn't even get enough time to heave a sigh of relief because

A spatial rift appeared behind him swallowing him up.

"I'm dead," he thought.

It was common knowledge that only those above the Martial Emperor realms could travel between realms freely and those at Martial Emperor realm could barely survive the travel for few hours. The reason was the spatial storms and turbulence that was ever present between different realms and the occasional spatial rifts that travelled at speed beyond that of Martial Emperor level experts.

Even if one somehow survived such rifts, there was always the chance to land up in a dangerous zone or get trapped with no way back.

Despite his insufficient cultivation, he was still alive after the storm ended due to his powerful protective treasure which bore most of the pressure. But that didn't mean that he was unscathed as his dantian cracked and his spiritual core started leaking.

He hurriedly used healing techniques to reduce the damage as much as possible but he ran out of energy soon and the rate at which he could gather energy was pitifully low. The storage treasures that contained healing treasures and restorative medicines were destroyed in the aftermath.

His cultivation was sealed up to Body Refinement realm—crushed by the density vacuum of the energy and the fragmented laws of the world around him.

"Looks like this is the end of the road for me."

His attention turned to his surroundings. Ashen plains. Dusky sky.

At first, he thought it was some uninhabited world with no life as the etheric content in the atmosphere was far lower than he was used to. But then he travelled further, there were forests full of trees, green valleys full of flowers and mountains.

"It would be a miracle if I can recover sufficient cultivation in this environment to travel between realms," he sighed in resignment with no hope of returning back to his world.

While searching around the forest for shelter, he found traces of living beings. Astonished he followed these tracks, leading him to a village in a valley with building settlements made up of gray stones and glowing crystals.

He quietly went near the village and observed for a while.

The villagers looked human and spoke language that seemed like a far-off variation of the human language which he could understand albeit with great difficulty. But the most astonishing of all was that this village was full of cultivators.

Even in his original world where the etheric content was far higher, there were always cases of people not being able to cultivate due to insufficient talent.

But, here in the middle of a cracked world with incomplete laws and lower etheric content, almost everyone was a cultivator even if it's the lowest Qi sensing realm.

He decided to enter the village to delve deeper into this. Initially, the people in the village kept a slight distance with him due to his strange dialect and jerky language but the more the people interacted with him the more they liked him due to his strange insights of living having accumulated knowledge from travelling across different realms.

Eventually they learned that he was a traveler from foreign lands but accepted him in the village despite his dubious origins.

After interacting with the villagers, he considered the people of this world known as 'Tishira' even more mysterious and innovative. What truly defied his understanding was that every single person living on this world had an innate ability to sense Qi. It didn't matter if they had poor spiritual roots or weak bloodline.

They had discovered ways to improve themselves in the Qi sensing realms with almost no ceiling. They had no concept of further realms beyond it like Body Refinement Realm and Foundation Establishment which was ok considering the low etheric content in their world.

However, they could strengthen their Qi sensing realms to such a level that advancing to further realms looked useless and immature in front of it.

In Pure Yang lord's perspective, Qi sensing realm was just the beginning realm that had nine levels to it which ended when one entered Body Refinement Realm. But the people here consider this realm to have thousands of levels.

Initially, it didn't make sense to him as each jump in cultivation realm brought transformation in almost every aspect—the level of soul, body, mind and spirit.

How can a being at the lower level compare with another who had transformed in almost every aspect.

His eyes lit up as he pondered, "If I can figure out the mystery of how these people cultivate… maybe I can restore my body and return to my homeland."

He asked several questions—some answered but much more remained unanswered. He found the strongest cultivator in the village, Rafe—a middle-aged man with thick eyebrows and long beard to spar with.

"So, you are this village's strongest expert?" Pure Yang lord asked.

Rafe gave a humble smile, "You can say that. But I can barely be considered an expert in the other cities."

"What level have you achieved in Qi sensing?" Pure Yang lord inquired further before the tussle.

"I have barely attained to the 8011th level of Qi sensing," he replied.

'Eight thousand… eleven?!' Pure Yang lord nearly choked.

"Hit me with your best shot," Pure Yang lord spoke full of confidence.

Rafe gave a nod and thrusted his palm with an attack but Pure Yang lord stood still without reacting. Rafe furrowed his brows at the nonchalance of Pure Yang lord but decided to continue.

However, Rafe's attack had no effect on Pure Yang lord.

'This guy's weaker than I expected… but he's definitely stronger than most Body Refinement experts,' Pure Yang lord pondered inside his head after gauging his strength.

Rafe tried attacking using different techniques but Pure Yang lord didn't even evade or moved.

"I give up." Rafe said, stepping back. "You are definitely a strong expert. How many realms have you attained?" Rafe asked in defeat.

"I'm …" Pure Yang lord wanted to say he was at the Martial Saint but then remembered there was no concept of realms beyond Qi refinement. "I'm at the 21st level of Qi Sensing."

Rafe became angry thinking Pure Yang lord was trying to make of fool of him. "You must be lying. How can you withstand my attacks if you're just at that level?"

"I'm not lying. It's just that I'm cultivating through some unconventional methods," Pure Yang lord replied sheepishly.

Rafe stared for a moment not convinced with his words.

"You said there are several experts in this world. Where can I find them?" Pure Yang lord continued.

"The true experts in this world basically leave their city/villages and go to some remote place spending most of their time absorbed in meditation trying to reach higher levels. But you may still find some like me who stopped improving and decided to stay in the village/cities till their old age," he replied with a sigh.