"ALL HAIL THE RETURN OF THE WIND PRINCE!" Roared a voice, with enough boom that the planet itself shuddered.
Joyous shouts and praises rocked the streets of the Imperial Planet of the Wind Realm, where no one was to rest from this joyful festive event, not for a month at least. Drinks made from the finest and most expensive fruits, aged and preserved only for such occasions were handed to everyone who joined the festival.
Carriages filled with the rarest and most beneficial cultivation spiritual fruits that anyone in the lower realm would wage war for just one were given to children for free. As for older and more mature people, they were each handed bags of Saint Qi crystals that were enough to make an ascendant's blood boil.
The streets were filled with decorations, and the whole realm was boisterous, as everyone heaved with joy at an event that happened a few weeks ago…
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The Eldest Son of the Wind Realm's King, Zhang Tian, had sent a Divine Sense avatar, and thanks to this Divine Sense Avatar, his location was discovered, after a thousand years of disappearance, most had believed that he had passed on, but the king never doubted the talent of his own son, never believed that he would die meaninglessly in some random corner of the world, thus he kept hope, and today his hope was awarded.
Guided by the avatar, the Wind King raised an army of billions of soldiers and marched forward with might strong enough to dismay the most deadly, and most dangerous of Space Dwellers aside, not even that, but even the Planetary Covenant had to do drastic measures as the Wind King moved such force.
The Wind King's armies Scared the living hell out of every Elemental King on the Vast Expanse, for none of them would make such a bold and daring move to move out their entire arsenal, but the Wind King was a doting father, and he would move his entire force for his son. Thus the Planetary Covenant had to literally move some of the planets out of their orbits in case the Wind King would think they were a hindrance and outright destroy them due to slowing him down.
The whole Vast Expanse had watched the Wind King's charge, moving about in space like a celestial meteor that bore through the fabric of space headed farther and farther away and into one of the World's Cracks.
A Crack that led to the old and ancient Lesser Celestial Realm.
For most Cultivators, no one dared go to the Lesser Celestial Realm, it was too complex to navigate and too vast to fully explore not to mention that it had a giant Spatial Rift within it that sucked out every ounce of Saint Qi, so there was nothing to explore there. It was barren land, that held nothing but death, decay and was not worth anyone's life to explore for at most pieces not even bigger than a piece of rice of saint Qi.
Thus, the lesser Celestial Realm was considered a wasteland, not worth being looked at or explored, and this was the very reason why they never thought that the son of the Wind King would be there.
For he had no reason to go there, but from what the reports had brought, it appeared that the Elusive Master Rain had been the reason why the Zhang Tian Son of the Wind Realm's King, was held captive.
For what reason, however, the prince himself didn't divulge that none but his father had known of the reason why Zhang Tian was captured and imprisoned.
The King had moved his armies through the World's Crack and then dove through the turbulent and highly aggressive wormhole that led into the ancient Lesser Celestial Realm.
For any cultivator of this realm, doing this would mean that they were in for a deadly risk, as the World Crack's rift was powerful enough to shred any cultivator below a certain cultivation rank to shreds. Yet in this advent, the King had personally covered all of his army, that counted in the billions, with his own Qi, his whole army looked like an imposing dragon of wind coursing the hole without suffering the least.
Seeing their king actively protecting every single one of them gave the soldiers great confidence in the loyalty of their king, so their own loyalty to him increased. They then each supplied their own Qi to the dragon, not to let the King exhaust himself, and thus, every soldier's Qi was imprinted on one of the wind dragon's scales, creating a seven-colored dragon that tore through the darkness of space.
The soldiers shouted for their king, as their king led the charge, making it into the Celestial Realm.
The moment the Dragon was inside the celestial realm, the golden glow of the ground shone even brighter as if it had been waiting and welcomed the king himself.
"Follow me!" the king said and the whole army once again charged forward into the direction of the Forbidden City.
With their strength, not a single creature that dwelled in the Celestial Realm dared to show its face, for they feared the strong, and the king and his army were nothing short of a god to them.
They feared for their lives and shuddered to hide whatever bit and piece of their bodies under rocks or in holes, terrified as the army moved above them.
It took them a month of travel before the army stopped, this just serves to explain how massive and grand this Celestial Realm is.
"Halt!" the king shouted and in front of them, was the massive forbidden city, locked behind thousands upon thousands of formations.
Just the sight of these formations caused the whole army to take a second to both be amazed and ready up for a deadly battle, for they knew well that these formations were going to be the death of many of them.
The king himself pulled his spear, readying to destroy as many restrictions to save his son who was captured and held within the massive palace.
"Father, Wait!" spoke the voice of his son as a wave of familiar divine sense washed over the army. This was not Zhang Tian's Divine Sense's aura, but the real one, coming from the palace.
"Do not destroy this place," spoke Zhang Tian.
"Why, son, don't you feel oppressed by this place, wouldn't destroying it clear your mind and heart?" replied the father.
"No, father, my heart has never been more solid, and never wavered, for I wish to preserve this place not for keepsake or for the thousand-year company, but I wish to preserve it for a friend. After all, it was thanks to that friend that I was able to send that Divine Sense Avatar."
"A friend? My son, made a friend? Who must he be, this glorious man, who could he be a man that even my own son could call a friend, and tide through these difficult traps to help him, for if he shows himself I shall name a Solar System after his name and grant him a Panetary Fiefdom and a title that would honor him and his generation for ten thousand years," the king spoke, and everyone from the army was shaken at his words, this was how the king valued his son's friend.
"Ah, he would definitely not accept that," Zhang Tian replied in a chuckle. "For he is pretty special!"
This both made the king and his entire army surprised, as who would refuse such honor, but at the same time, the prince had laughed? This was a first, and his own father was on the verge of tears. For who could make his own son, the stoic, scholar who had no feelings to express laughter and joy.
"Who is this magnificent man, if you are among my army show yourself!" the king said.
No one in the army moved forward.
"Father, he is not among your army, nor among your people," Zhang Tian said.
"Then he must be a grand and great master of the other realm, a reclusive and powerful Saint." The king said.
"No, for he belongs to no faction," Zhang Tian said.
"Then a powerful Hermit who travels the world in search of the Truth!"
"Not even that, for if you know this man, you will be shaken to your core." Zhang Tian.
"Son, I have lived for too long to be shaken by surprises, but I know you not to speak nonsense or lies, tell us, who might this person be, so we can reward him."
"I don't wish to reveal his name, for I fear that an enemy might go after him, but all I can say is, that he was a Core Cultivator when he came here, and he tided through all of those formations, the very formations that our entire army was thinking that they'll risk an arm and a leg to move through, he did all that with just a Core Cultivation base."
The words sounded, and silence prevailed, for what Zhang Tian was saying was akin to impossible.
"Son, are you not joking?" the King said, even if he knew his son to not be a liar, this was too hard to believe.
"I joke not, you can check it yourself, travel the same path he did, you'll discover that all the formations he went through have been tampered with and are much easier to break, better bring just one or two guards lest the army cause more trouble." Zhang Tian said.
The king then used his own divine sense and began detecting traces of Qi.
"This Qi! The Poison God?" The Wind Realm's King sent a divine sense message to his own son; lest another person from the army would hear this.
"No, but apparently, fate had brought me his own disciple. This is for your eyes alone, I doubt anyone from your army could recognize this Qi, so he should be safe and sound, but you must forbid anyone from scanning this area, that's why I asked you to bring only your trusted guards." The prince replied back.
"Soldiers, you are hereby forbidden from using divine sense! Lest I approve it!"
"YES, Your Majesty!" the whole army replied.
"You, come with me," The King said and flew down with the company of two of his generals.
Placing a hand on one of the barriers, he realized that what his son was speaking was true, this Qi was belonging to the Poison God, but it was too weak, not even a fraction of a fraction of the Poison God's own Qi, still, the purity was there.
"Wind, show me the past!" the Wind King Said.
And with that, the wind manifested and twisted, recreating the scenes when Shen Bao was flying away from the Silver Back Kajangs, and coming in contact with the formation.
The wind only showed the Shape of Shen Bao, and could barely show his expression, as it recreated Shen Bao's movement, as he worked his way through the formation, rewriting them and then moved about.
"Crude, yet, original, this inscription technique…" Spoke the King.
"You'll be more surprised if you follow this path," said the Prince, and sent his father the path that Shen Bao had crossed through a divine sense message.
The king pressed his hand on the formation and it immediately broke, since Shen Bao had tampered with it, it only needed a push from someone as powerful as the Wind King to break, but if it had been the same before being tampered not even the Wind King could easily dispel it.
The Wind King moved according to his son's map, and with every inscription, he was more and more surprised until it turned to utter and complete shock.
"This man! How long did he take?" Asked the king.
"Two Months!" the prince replied.
"In just a mere two months, a core cultivation realm cultivator had reached an understanding of inscription that was on par with Master Rain. Not that I'm belittling the elusive Master Rain's inscription, but this child had made all the years Master Rain had spent be nothing but a waste. If he were here, he'll rip his hair out." The king laughed.
"He gets even better, out of spite, I actually showed him Master Rain's hideout, he ransacked it whole, with that much material, I'm sure he will become even better than Master Rain, that's if you keep what happened here a secret, I don't want Master Rain to realize that his inventory was sacked by a core cultivator."
"I shall keep this a secret, but the moment I let you out, Master Rain will know of it."
"Even if he does, he will think that I took those items, not the Core Cultivator, then I dare him to show his face in front of me." Zhang Tian replied.
"True. But I truly fear for such a grand talent to be wasted, is he in our realm?"
"I have told you, father, he doesn't belong to anyone, he comes from a faraway planet, on the rims of the Wind Realm, within the Barren Space."
"Curses, I would have personally gone there, but the Barren Space can't withstand our Qi, it would break and tear. We should still bring some Half Step Ascendants to protect him, at least from harm." The King replied.
"No need, he has a powerful Puppet, also, it would be determinable to his growth, let him grow, I believe in him he is not someone who will die easily."
"I'm glad you think well of your friend, lets keep going," the King Said and moved forward.
As he traveled across the path Shen Bao had crossed, he was more and more surprised until he reached a location where the Silver Kajang was laying, desperately covering its eyes with its hands, as if it couldn't see the dangerous King, the king wouldn't see it.
"Let me dispose of this beast for you, my king." Said one of the Generals as he pulled his sword and moved dangerously toward the shaking Kajang.
"Keep it, it caused some trouble of my friend, but I don't wish it dead at the hands of another," the Prince replied.
"As you wish!" the general replied and sheathed his sword.
"Let's keep moving, my son is nearby!" the king said and the group marched forward.