A glint of interest passed in his eyes, ‘Varnari, the Varnari are a blessed race, at least better than human, I wonder…’ his posture grew thoughtful as he gently rubbed his chin.
‘If it’s possible to gain their characteristics?’ his thought drifted to this subject as he brainstormed some ideas, ‘Maybe some kind of Cultivation Methods or maybe Heavenly Wonder or maybe human—I mean Varnari experimentation could be useful…’ as these thought passed in his mind, his gaze grew intense, almost like a mad scientist.
Shiver.
At that moment some Varnari who were in his line of sight shivered, feeling like they were being targeted by a terrifying predator but after looking around them they didn’t see anything and returned to their cultivation.
Shook.
Mikael gently shook his head as he saw the Varnari “spooked” reaction, ‘Forget it the situation is too much of a power keg, at least for now, thinking about this subject is meaningless after all without at the absolute minimum, a couple of Varnari bodies to use for some studying, thinking about gaining any of their characteristic stays nothing more than a fool dream!’
‘Especialllyyyyy—’ his gaze moved to the top of the Chitinous Leviathan were two individuals were, one the recognizable Sect Master that was Varathen and another Varnari who was strikingly handsome, this Varnari had golden Qi and consequently similar colored eyes while having long white hair.
All of that coming together in an extremely handsome visage on which a mix of arrogance and warrior pride was presence and Mikael recognized this particular Varnari but at that moment he wasn’t his focus, his attention was on Varathen.
‘—with his presence, trying to capture some Varnari for experimentation would stay as nothing more than a fool's dream and if I am retarded enough to try it…’
He slightly shook his head, ‘Let’s say that there are easier ways to commit suicide…’
On these thoughts he shelved his thoughts on the Varnari away but a seed had been planted but whether he would act on it later or not was to be seen…
At that moment his attention refocused itself on the duo who were seated on the ‘head’ of the Chitinous Leviathan, these two being the only Varnari who were ‘outside’ and the way both acted it was almost like… they had equal status?
But it was impossible, after all Varathen was a 3rd layer Core Perfection Realm cultivator and the Sect Master of the Eidolon Path Sect so what kind of status would this handsome Varnari need to be to be treated as an equal by somebody like Varathen!?
‘Tharvonis!’
Mikael knew as he recognized him, this Varnari was named Tharvonis and was a once in a millenium genius of the Varnari, and he was the same genius from which he had heard stories about long ago when he was attending the Hebdomary Core Disciples Meeting.
He remembered at that time that this Varnari genius had challenged a lot of human genius from various forces and had crushed all of them, gaining a truly overbearing and invincible aura and reputation!
And it wasn’t a bloated reputation but a truly deserved one!
Him being called a once in a millennium genius was also fully deserved as his cultivation speed was truly monstrous, with him reaching the Peak of the Spiritual Foundation Realm at 30 and since then 15 years passed during which he suppressed his cultivation.
He didn’t break through to the Core Formation Realm even though he would have easily been able to, at the place he focused on building the strongest possible foundation!
But not only was his cultivation speed and foundation monstrous but it wasn’t all; he also had an extremely pure Varnari bloodline that came with his monstrous talent and insane comprehension.
When all these factors came together in the Varnari that was Tharvonis you obtained a genius which had slain multiple Core Formation cultivators and demonic beasts and of those there were even some Mid-Stage ones!
‘Seems pretty strong…’ frowned Mikael as he observed him, after all, with Tharvonis’s many feats he obviously knew about him and was wary.
Yes, wary! Mikael was wary, because while he was strong and would only continue to grow stronger, he wasn’t invincible, and with Tharvonis being nearly a Major Realm above him combined with the latter being extremely talented, Mikael was cautious as he knew that Tharvonis was perhaps his greatest contender in the Secret Realm!
Frown.
Tharvonis frowned, seeming to sense something as he turned his head toward Mikael, his golden gaze carrying a faint air of superiority as it met Mikael’s calm emerald one.
“...”
Their gazes stayed locked onto each other for a few seconds as both men sensed the power contained in the other, they analyzed and observed the other powerful warrior, and then—
Mikael broke this ‘deadlock’ as a faint half-smile formed on his lips, followed by a small nod, a nod that Tharvonis, after a couple of seconds spent observing this human cultivator, returned in kind.
“What is it?” inquired Varathen, seeing that Tharvonis’s attention was distracted.
“Nothing much, just…” a glint passed in his golden gaze, a faint warrior’s hunger burning within them as he continued, “...maybe this Secret Realm exploration won’t be as boring as I thought.”
Tharvonis answered as he felt a flicker of excitement being born toward this human warrior, and after saying those words, he finally diverted his gaze from the man before him and refocused his attention on his Sect Master.
After this small event, time began to quietly pass with nothing else occurring, only the unbroken flow of the river of time continuing onward, hours slipping one after another as the tear in reality grew ever stabler with each passing moment.
And so it went on for a little more than two days until—
KRRRSHHH–THRUM!
The immense rift in reality cracked with power, sending out an invisible shock wave as the entry into the Realm of Broken Skies finally reached its ‘critical point,’ and after one last eruption of energy, it became fully stable.
The previously unstable space that would have torn apart any cultivator daring to approach it now turned into nothing more than a ‘harmless’ portal.
The nearby cultivators who had been meditating immediately grew excited, breaking from their cultivation as they hurriedly prepared to enter, but—
Unfortunately, while the tear was now considered ‘stable,’ it was still the remnant of a war-torn dimension and not a true Secret Realm, and because of that, it wasn’t truly stable.
Even in its best state, it could only allow 10 Spiritual Foundation Realm cultivators to enter every 5 minutes, otherwise the tear in reality would once again become unstable in an extremely lethal way!
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Because of this limitation, an order on which cultivators would enter this Secret Realm absolutely needed to be present.
And this OBVIOUSLY created a situation where every cultivator present wanted to be the or in the first to enter, and this wasn’t only because of the advantage of having more time to explore it and being able to explore it in ‘advance’.
After all, this wasn’t much of an advantage considering that entering some minutes or at most hours earlier or later would in truth not change much, since the Realm of Broken Skies would remain open for an entire 7 days from the moment the rift first became stable moments ago.
And once this timeframe of 7 days had passed all the cultivators inside the Realm of Broken Skies would be ‘thrown out’ of this Secret Realm in a way that they would reappear at the same place they entered it.
But saving time wasn’t the real point of the situation, as the REAL reason why everybody wanted to enter the Secret Realm as soon as possible was, as always, a matter of face, because entering sooner was a sign of strength while being later was a sign of weakness…
And for cultivators for which face was everything, it was obviously a big deal!
Consequently, hours earlier before the rift stabilized, all of the Sects talked—more like showed their strength—and then, in function of who was stronger, the order of entering it was created with it being like that:
- Eidolon Path Sect
- Wandering Sword Sect
- Frozen Serenity Sect
- Flame Sovereign Sect
And after that, it was the First-Rate Sects or Organizations, followed by the Second-Rate ones, which were then followed by the Third-Rate Sects and Organizations of the Suncrest Region.
Vwoooom!
The first batch of Varnari, led by Tharvonis, entered the Realm of Broken Skies, the rift slightly rippling with their entrance as a faint ‘humming’ sound echoed before they all disappeared.
Following that, the tear grew visibly more unstable, showing why it was necessary to wait 5 minutes, and once that time had passed, the next batch of Varnari entered, and then the next one, and the next…
This continued on until all the Varnari had entered, followed by the stronger—those with higher cultivation—Core Disciples of the Wandering Sword Sect.
Of course, this… unique Sect didn’t care about face like the other Sects, but Qiu Yuelan, in all her lazi—wisdom, still decided to follow the ‘original rules,’ after all, it was simpler that way…
Because of that, Lian’er was one of the first to enter the Secret Realm, and after a while, it was Mikael, Amelia, Kiara, and Lyra’s turns, as them being the weakest Core Disciples, they were the last Core Disciples to enter.
Step, step, step.
Their footsteps echoed as they approached the titanesque tear in reality, and at that instant, Mikael distinctively sensed how space was… broken.
He felt the remnants of a war beyond his imagination in the way space was torn apart, creating this tear that he neared while sensing space, and as he did so he felt faint insights appear in his mind.
Vwoooom!
The instant Mikael stepped into the tear the world twisted, with reality no longer obeying any familiar rule, his vision fracturing into thousands of distorted fragments, with colors blending into one another as distance seemed to both stretch and collapse onto each other at the same time.
“Argh.”
A faint nauseous sound escaped Mikael only to be lost in space as he felt a distinctive feeling of nausea, as being exposed to space this intrinsically was not something he was supposed to feel with his ‘meager’ cultivation realm.
Then—
Fwoooom…
Space coiled around him while he felt a pressure accumulate behind him, a pressure that only increased in a moment before erupting all at once and projecting him at what felt like light speed.
Tear!
Mikael heard a faint tearing sound as suddenly he felt the space before him being torn apart by his passage, and he abruptly ‘barged’ back into reality, the previous distortion vanishing as his foot touched solid ground once more.
“That was fucky…” grumbled Mikael as he stumbled a step, feeling like his balance and spatial sense were all fucked, but at the same time, faint insights about space appeared within his mind.
“Argh.”
He grunted as he brought a hand to his temple and rubbed it with his eyes closed, doing so for a couple of seconds until he had regained his bearing, and then, and only then, did he open his eyes, finally paying attention to his surroundings.
“Whoah.”
Instinctively, a small sound of awe escaped him as he took in what lay before and around him.
He was currently standing on a slightly elevated red hill, the red color coming from the cracked earth below his feet which was a unique red color, but not the bloody red of Sangrelia…
No, it was something else, it was almost like the red of a broken earth!
The slightly elevated hill he stood upon offered him a perfect view of the vast surrounding landscape, and the only term that came to mind to describe it…
‘Battlefield, a war-torn battlefield!’ was the thought that flashed through his mind as his gaze swept across the desolation, for every stretch of land and fragment of ground around him shared that same ‘broken red’.
But that wasn’t all, as his surroundings seemed to distinctively lack any form of ‘vitality’, in the sense that there wasn’t the slightest hint of life anywhere—there wasn’t even a poor bush or the faintest sign of vegetation, it was truly, utterly empty.
And the reason for that could be seen as Mikael's attention focused on the nearby ‘craters’, because all around him the landscape was devastated with hundreds to thousands to more meters wide and deep craters being ever present.
And these craters weren’t naturally formed but were the aftershock of collisions and the war between Soul Phase cultivators that had happened millions of years ago!
Which only served to show the overwhelming power these cultivators carried, and this was especially so considering the extreme durability of this now broken ‘war dimension’, or else forget thousands of meters wide craters—even city or country sized ones wouldn’t have been surprising!
But even with the dimension's extreme durability, the residual power of these cultivators’ battles was still present within it, making it so no plants, vegetation, or anything alive could grow and survive, leaving this broken Secret Realm as nothing more than a desolate landscape…
Got thoughts? Comments and reviews help shape future arcs—your voice matters.
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A/N:
I just remarked but we are already at the 12 chapter of the Realm of Broken Skies and it’s only now that we see Mikael entering this Secret Realm… so yeah no comment on that.
SO anyways, we see Tharvonis who is a genius, after all if Mikael can have ‘heaven defying’ battle power, there is no reason for other ‘super geniuses’ to not be able to do so, right?
(I want to precise that it won’t devolve in the classical ‘power creep’—actually power creep doesn’t really work but anyway this is to say that because Mikael is strong we won’t suddenly see 10 heavenly genius able to battle an entire Major Realm above them because…plot!)
We won’t see that as battling above one realm, even just a minor realm is hard, extremely hard and I want to empathize this one more, even for heavenly geniuses with overpowered bloodline like True Dragon Bloodline for example, we won’t see him as a Spiritual Foundation Realm cultivator battle a Soul Phase cultivator for example.
Or if something like that happens, I will damn make sure that there is an extremely extremely good reason for it.
In the Akashic Records Universe Mikael is an ‘exception’ with his overpowered battle power but we accompanied him in his power growth so it’s logical and not’s just overpowered bloodline = overpowered.
Anyways, I am kinda getting nowhere with what I am saying so I will stop here.
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— End of Chapter —