Entering the Void Gate was like an abrupt flash of light in one's face. Besides an odd tingly feeling within one's extremities, there was nothing else to be felt.
Wei Wuyin blinked. A brighter than normal sunlight entered his silver eyes and nearly blinded him. It took sometime for him to adjust. While doing so, he felt the ground beneath his feet was solid and leveled.
'I expected a traveling or shifting sensation, but it was more like passing through a door into the outside. How strange...is this how it feels for items in storage rings?'
As this thought flashed through his mind, his heart started to race abruptly. A wisp of excitement emerged and forced it to throb endlessly. Today marked the day of irrevocable change to many, including him, and he felt it. An undoubted sensation of adventure.
Since young, what did he want the most? To journey across the vast and unknown lands, meeting all sorts of creations, things, and wonders!
As his eyes adjusted, the visual spectacle before him started to slowly be consumed by his mind, imprinted forever. He saw the sun. No, he saw three!
He was wonderstruck by this new sight, by this new and foreign yet astonishing sky! Three suns emitting boundless, bright, and warm sunlight! They were of varying sizes, but visibly apparent and didn't block each other off. Furthermore, they were all of different colors!
The smallest was like a bright moon releasing blazingly scintillating rays of light. It was dark-red and released faint dark-pinkish light. From even this distance, one could even see incredibly spectacular movements on this sun's surface. Were these solar flares erupting endlessly? He had never seen something like this in broad-daylight. There was once in a moment of an eclipse, and he noticed it, but besides that...never! Despite being the smallest, it was the most animated.
The largest was three times larger than the middle-sized sun. It was bright yellow and contributed to the majority of the sunlight on this land. Its light rays seemed to be like shimmering gold. It was quite peculiar!
The last sun was white, and wasn't as special. It seemed very still and the light emitted wasn't exceptionally potent or noticeable. This sun felt incredibly familiar. 'It reminds me of the sun I see on the Myriad Yore Continent.'
Wei Wuyin was caught in a state of utter disbelief. How fucking far did they go? In the Myriad Yore Continent, there was only one sun visible in the sky! He couldn't fathom the distance.
"The essence of heaven and earth here is so dense and pure!" Su Mei praised as she deeply and repeatedly inhaled and exhaled several breaths of air.
Only now did Wei Wuyin remember to inspect the environment, and she was right! The essence here was exceptionally dense and unfathomably pure. In the Myriad Yore Continent, essence stones had to be refined and purified before sent into circulation as a cultivation resource or currency, but the very air here was like the essence within those purified and refined essence stones!
As he circulated his cultivation, he easily deduced that a single breath was the equivalent of a thousandth of an essence stone. In that case, a thousand breaths of cultivation meant an essence stone worth absorbed! That was insane!
Bam!
Bai Lin stomped her feet. Wei Wuyin realized that with her immense weight and strength, she was utterly incapable of making even the smallest depression or imprint in the ground. It was like reinforced steel! If he wanted to rend the ground, how much force would that take?
'How durable is the environment?!' He felt as if he was ushered into the realm of immortals mentioned in fairytales and myths.
He hurriedly inspected the surroundings as more people started to arrive from thin air. He realized that there wasn't a Void Gate here or any indication of their arrival. It was as if they appeared from literally thin air. His heart shivered at the eerie and miraculous.
'Fairy Blessed Spirit did say that it's like a storage ring. In storage rings you set coordinates and send an object through the ring into another area and vice versa. Connecting two spaces...how profound!'
He immediately realized why Void Disks were crucial. If you entered an active Void Gate randomly, who knew where you'd end up without a pre-set designation?
"Myriad Nascent Dao Pagoda?" Su Mei's adventurous spirit wasn't as strong as his as she immediately honed onto the only notable structure in the surrounding area. This entire area was a flat grassy plains that stretched all the way to the mountains tens of kilometers in the distance. It was a completely leveled field, so not much could be noted to begin with.
But there was just one thing: a pagoda.
And this pagoda was quite familiar in design to him. It matched the Myriad War Dao Palace and Myriad Creation Dao Palace they visited. It had nine-floors, was multicolored, and its roofs had rather sharp, piercing edges. It wasn't very big. It seemed the floors may only be thirty or so meters large.
At the top of the pagoda was a dazzling sign with rainbow colored characters written directly into the sky. It floated effortlessly as it revealed itself. It read: "Myriad Nascent Dao Pagoda."
He felt an immensely powerful aura and presence from those words and they seemed to contain a profound intent. It was as if it was telling all those who looked upon it this: "Your journey will begin here. Your Dao will begin here."
Before long, everyone arrived with Xiang Ling bringing Long Tingyu along. She was being carried within her embrace like a baby. Long Tingyu was blushing and embarrassed. Unfortunately, it couldn't be helped as he cultivation was abolished and her mortal self couldn't withstand the weak force the Void Gate emitted.
Carrying Long Tingyu, Xiang Ling arrived ahead of the newly arrived crowd and swept her gaze. Long Tingyu felt even more embarrassed and buried her head into Xiang Ling's ample breasts.
A wisp of envy entered the hearts of every male present.
"Alright! We're here. I'm only going to explain this once, so pay attention!" Xiang Ling's tone was nearly militant at this point as she barked out her words. Her delicate and alluring bearing seemed to have been replaced by one that was imposing and carried authority.
"We are still in the Astral Territory of the sect, the Myriad Monarch Sect! Your Myriad Yore Continent is millions of miles away, at the far-reaches and fringes of our Astral Territory. The entire world we live in is called a Starfield, and its name is the Tri-Vision Starfield. Within it are hundreds of continental flat earths and dozens of spherical planets, as well as the three suns that you see beyond the sky.
"As for the territory of the sect, it's called the Myriad Monarch Astral Territory, and we are one of the five hegemons within the entire starfield! You'll learn more about these leading powers if your cultivation can even touch upon that level.
"You were all given an exceptional chance, once-in-a-lifetime. There are countless forces at the level of your countries spread about like flies, but they are all unfathomably weak and the lowest level force in our starfield. Yet, you have the opportunity to directly join a hegemonic power of this world, the Myriad Monarch Sect; where monarchs are born!"
Her gaze was stern and heavy, releasing a formless and unfathomable pressure on the hearts of every elite and acclaimed genius here. But despite that pressure, endless waves couldn't help be ripple in each of their hearts.
Hundreds of continental flat earths? What are spherical planets? A hegemonic power of this starfield!?
They were truly ushered into a new, grander world! They could barely adapt in time. In fact, a few felt dizzy and even homesick. Some felt indignant, as if they had just realized how tiny and insignificant they were yet were unwilling to accept it. Their ignorance and the revealment of such shattered their beliefs in themselves.
Xiang Ling was ruthless and didn't give them time to breathe, "This Astral Territory encompasses six continental flat earths and three spherical planets. We're on the capital planet and where the headquarters of the Myriad Monarch Sect is located: the Myriad Monarch Planet!"
Wei Wuyin's left eyelid twitched a little. Such a simple naming sense.
She unhesitantly added, "I'll explain a little about disciple rank, as this relates to the Myriad Nascent Dao Pagoda you see behind me." Behind her was the only structure, and it was unable to be missed in this field of nearly nothing.
"In the Myriad Monarch Sect, there are five ranks for disciples assigned! Nascent Dust, Mortal Common, Earthly Elite, Sky Noble, and Heavenly King! There is no division of outer, inner, or core, and we follow a strict hierarchy of status equals authority! However, don't fret your little heads, ability is the defining factor of status, so if you feel indignant, fight for your freedom to act as you please.
"Your potential is worth shit before the sect. Even if you had the potential to become a god, if you're not in the Astral Core Realm, you're not even worthy of being a Mortal Common rank disciple!" Her gaze was truly terrifying as she explained these rules and structure of the Myriad Monarch Sect's disciples.
"The first rank disciple: Nascent Dust. All those below the Astral Core Realm are at this rank."
"The second rank disciple: Mortal Common. All those at the First and Second Stages of the Astral Core Realm are considered this rank automatically, barring abnormal combat strength."
"The third rank disciple: Earthly Elite. All those at the Third Stage of the Astral Core Realm are this rank."
"The fourth rank disciple: Sky Noble! This is determined by exceptional combat strength and ability. If you can become an Earthly Elite and separate yourselves from the ordinary experts, passing the Elite Trial of Warriors, you'll have a chance to attain this rank."
"The fifth and last rank disciple: Heavenly King! It is something beyond your levels, likely now and in the future. I won't bother. Furthermore, you're considered a disciple until you're five hundred years old, where you'll automatically be assigned the rank of Elder, that is...as long as you're at the Second Stage of the Astral Core Realm."
Her eyes turned to Wei Wuyin, a slight sweet smile on her face as she said, "There are exceptions, however! These exceptions apply to Creationists, which are Forgers, Designers, and Alchemists! They contribute to the sect in different ways, far beyond what their cultivation allows, so they're given the according rankings based on their respective abilities."
Wei Wuyin was an Alchemic King, so he could be considered exceptionally skilled, and at the higher levels, he could help develop and nurture First to Third Stage Astral Core Realm experts! Due to him having the possibility of birthing multiple experts at this level, he would be given the Sky Noble disciple rank from the get-go.
Now, if he was a Lord Alchemist, he could only start out as a Mortal Common rank with this exception, and that was if his skills allowed the birth of Astral Core Realm experts. Only now did Wei Wuyin understand this difference, and why Xiang Ling was so amicable and gentle with him.
"Behind me is the Myriad Nascent Dao Pagoda. It is the testing ground of your ability and whether you're worthy to enter the sect as a disciple.
"You all can enter when you're ready, there is no time-limit to do so, and you can even wait fifty years if you desire. As long as you're below the age of two hundred, you can attempt its trials. Despite its size, it will be able to accommodate all of you at the same time. As long as you ascend all nine floors, you'll be accepted as a Nascent Dust rank disciple of the Myriad Monarch Sect. Then, an elder will eventually come and bring all those who succeed to the sect. If you fail and retain your life, you can figure out a way back. If you can't then..." She coldly smiled.
"Welcome to your new world."