Daniel followed Emelnie inside "Can that time sphere be set to work differently from how it is now?"
"Why? Do you want to comprehend time essence?" Asked the woman while furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Don't you have your hands full with spatial essence?"
"I have a genuine interest in all sorts of essence.. I will never know where my talents lie in if I don't try to study them all, right?" Responded Daniel with a confident tone.
The platinum blonde woman looked at Daniel with her cristal clear eyes, then said "Alright. But as a martial cultivator, I can't do that. You'll have to ask my husband once we'll reach the capital."
A few minutes in the company of two high level cultivators had already changed Daniel's prospective drastically. With the new information he had, he couldn't wait to comprehend time essence and learn all its practical uses.
Daniel gave the woman a polite bow before leaving the room and walking towards his assigned one. Once inside, he put the small box that contained the gravitational room on the floor, and entered it.
The very next moment, Daniel found himself surrounded by nothing. There were no walls made of spatial essence, only a small floor that extended a meter in radius from Daniel's position.
Past that single meter, the spatial essence dissipated into nothingness.
When Daniel observed the oddity of the gravitational room, the gravity within was still at a normal level. Unfortunately, it didn't take more than a few moments before the gravity increased to a hundredfold, and for Daniel to find himself on his knees.
Before he could even try to force his lungs to inflate, the gravity changed again.. The single feeble push caused by inhaling made him float helplessly in mid air.
Gravity kept changing over and over again, not giving Daniel any time to rest.
It didn't take long before he fell unconscious, only to wake up after an unspecified amount of hours.
When he woke up, he was still being buffeted up and down, so, before losing his consciousness once again, he activated 'Time is Precious' and started to comprehend how gravity worked.
-----
No time had passed within the gravitational field, and yet Daniel had only grown older by a week. His comprehension of the gravitational aspects of space was nearing perfection, and Daniel could feel that only being killed by gravity would help him make that last step towards perfection. But despite what he had told to Edmund, he decided not to attempt this method within a space with no time.
After all, his comprehension of time was non-existent, and he wasn't sure if time could be reverted if there was none to begin with.
Daniel's current comprehension of space had reached only forty percent. But despite what one may think, forty percent of spatial essence comprehension was beyond what a sixteen year old kid should possess.
Regardless, Daniel had comprehended the change and effects of gravity. He wasn't in a hurry to learn the effects that too much gravity would have on a human's body.
He left the gravitational box he was currently in, and appeared back inside his room.
When he was about to open the door and leave, he heard knocking on the door. Behind it was Edmund's wife Emelnie.
She looked at Daniel's sorry state, and with a gentle smile she said "You better clean up, we have arrived to the capital." then left quietly.
Daniel quickly took his clothes off, washed his body with water essence, and put on a set of clean clothes, then he left Edmund's pocket dimension.
When Daniel reappeared, he found himself in front of the most dazzling spectacle of his life.
The capital of the Krehan empire was called Krea, and it was built above dozens of gigantic floating islands. Each island was connected to another by large and solid bridges. Enormous chains kept the floating islands anchored on the ground, and from drifting away.
In the air, Daniel could see thousands of floating people, and a few amongst them even rode high ranking beasts.
Of course, Daniel was aware of the power those beasts possessed. These beasts intelligence was in no way inferior to than of an adult human, and some of them could even talk or shape-shift into human form.
Shapeshifting was a specific kind of magic that beasts practiced once they reached a certain level of cultivation. What was interesting about it, was that the members of the beast species did not shapeshift into human form. Instead, they shapeshifted into their pure beastly form.
Daniel had learned this from one of the books he had found within the castle.
The higher a beast's cultivation reached, the more they would look like humans. Also, after reaching the seventh rank, they would learn how to change the composition of their body, and transform back into beasts.
Daniel had seen an example of this with the Commander Steel-back Scorpion, which after reaching the fourth rank of cultivation, had obtained a faint humanoid body.
Three sets of its walking legs had disappeared, while the remaining pair had turned into human-like legs. Its pinchers had turned into arms, and its human-like head was connected to the rest of his body by a neck.
Considering how human-like that beast had become after only reaching the fourth rank of cultivation, it was no wonder that an eight or ninth rank beast would become almost indistinguishable from a member of the human race.
This was not only something that regarded beasts. Even the asums, and other races that Daniel hadn't met yet became more similar to humans the more powerful they became.
"This is Krea?" Asked Daniel with a face filled with surprise.
"Home to the biggest academies, mercenary groups, and Krehan's imperial family." Responded Edmund with a matter-of-fact tone. "Let's go, we are already late for the first encounter."
Before Daniel could even ask about this "first encounter", Edmund teleported him into an extremely large square. In this square, the most powerful people within the Krehan empire were standing along with their disciples. At the sides of the square, were two long balconies, inside which, two sets of chairs had been placed. These sets of chairs were divided into private boxes.
Right in front of him, Daniel could see a large floating platform, on which seven chairs had been placed in an ordered line. The chairs in the middle was in a slightly higher position than the ones to its sides.
These chairs were completely occupied by just as many people. These people were all extremely well dressed, and had a noble attitude. They quietly looked at the scene in the square in silence.
Sitting at the edges of this line of chairs, were the two youngest amongst them. A kid that didn't seem to have reached twelve years of age, and a teenage girl that seemed to be about Daniel's age. Closer to the center, were another young woman that showed the vitality of a twenty year old woman, and a stern young man that seemed to be in his early twenties as well.
Sitting on the two chair placed at the direct sides of the middle one, were a middle aged woman with a proud expression, and a carefree young man that seemed to be in his mid-twenties.
Finally, sitting on the slightly elevated chair in the center of the platform, was a middle aged man. This man had a stern look on his face, and seemed to have never heard a joke in his life. His golden armor, noble features, and overall appearance seemed to have been designed to remind others of this man's superiority.
These people were the imperial family of the Krehan empire, and the man in the middle, was the Emperor.
After looking around for just a minute, Daniel felt shocked once again.
He had never seen so many young and powerful people.
Usually he would be able to see people in their twenties with a cultivation rank between the fourth and fifth sage. But the average here was on another level. Everyone was at his and Jerigh's level of cultivation level at the very least.
Edmund noticed Daniel's shock and said "Makes you think, doesn't it?"
"I was never the arrogant type. I expected people at my level to exist.. I just didn't think I would be able to see so many and so soon." Responded Daniel with a slightly irritated tone.
"Relax. These people aren't as talented as you are.. They have used other methods to reach these levels." Said Edmund with a slight smile on his face. He was clearly enjoying the broadening of this absolute prodigy's horizon.
With narrowed eyes and furrowed brows, Daniel looked at Edmund and asked "What kind of methods?.."
"Time accelerated training grounds." Responded Edmund with a flat and uninterested tone.
Once again, Daniel started to feel his body shiver in excitement with the idea of learning time essence. He looked at Edmund with vivid eyes and said "So that's one use of time essence.. How does it work?"
"Time essence affects other essences, but not the natural consumption of life essence, or how you'd call it, aging. Speeding time in a pocket dimension would allow one to absorb and consume essences at a faster rate, but without aging faster." Responded Edmund with a patient tone.
Shock was clearly visible on Daniel's face. It didn't matter how many people in history would eventually learn about this, there would never be someone as surprised as Daniel was right now.
The description of a pocket dimension with speeded time seemed to be a description of his very own karmic system.
While still in the midst of his surprise, Daniel couldn't help but ask a question that popped into his mind. "So, can I expect other participants to have an incredible comprehension of essences or perfect masteries of weapons?"
"Why do you ask that?" Asked Edmund with a slightly confused face.
Daniel could already guess the answer by looking at Edmund's reaction, so he said "Well, I assume that they are all rich beyond measure.. They must have exploited all possibilities to reach the most power in the least amount of time. Am I wrong?"
"You are not wrong. All of these disciples were able to cultivate in pocket dimensions with hastened time. That gave them much more time to practice the use of weapons, comprehend essences, and learn martial and spiritual arts. It is better if you don't underestimate them." Responded Edmund with a dead serious tone. He then continued "The first day of the event is the presentation. The disciples will go up on the stage one by one, and present themselves in front of the experts."
"How many events are there?" Asked Daniel curiously.
"Five events. Presenting, Demonstration, Competition, Evaluation, and Gathering." Responded Edmund while looking around. He then said "Each event is two days apart from the other, so worry about your presentation."
Daniel had finally started to feel a little pressure from the whole event. He then said "What am I supposed to say?"
"Your name, age, path of cultivation.. Your origins. Just observe what others do. It's unlikely that you'll be the first one." Responded Edmund with a casual tone. He then said "It's about to begin."
Suddenly, every single master within the square disappeared, and when they reappeared, they were occupying the boxes within the two balconies. At the same time, in the square, a small stage appeared. It was a simple stage made out of stone, and all of them looked at it in silence.
Daniel had no idea of what to do. So he stood back and observed.
The various disciples looked at each other for a moment, before dashing at the stage without a second thought.
The first to put his foot on the stony surface was a young man in blue robes, which had used water essence to propel himself himself with a water jet. The robe was extremely simple, but was tight enough to show his athletic body. His hair were of a lucid black color, which under the sunlight formed a dark blue reflection.
The rest of the cultivators were rejected by the stage the very moment the foot of the first young man had touched the stony flooring.
The young man approached the middle of the stage, turned to look at the imperial family, and after a deep bow, he said "This loyal servant's name is Midio.."