The Heavenly Gallery.

Lei Kai Lian had just appeared within, but she could already feel her attainment and insights elevating her, lifting her up past the typical beginning within the Gallery, lifting her towards the upper bounds. There, she could see countless epiphanies and realisations, fascinating insights that she couldn’t perceive in full, but simply viewing them was more than enough for her to learn and grow, her mind filling with knowledge she would have to digest after this was done.

For now, she submitted her own findings, condensing them into a single brilliant gemstone, lustrous and with countless gorgeous facets. It mimicked the cold blue of Jun’s own energy, but was also strongly inspired by her own light, a pure and white glow that shone from within.

This crystallization was the sum of her insights on the archetype, and it lifted her up, past countless inferior comprehensions, to the higher strata, where she felt her mind begin to struggle.

There was just too much, and too different from what she knew. The Gallery contained all knowledge that was given to it over the eternity of this world’s existence, and thus it stored all manner of archetypes and concepts, even those that are long forgotten in today’s Eastern Continent. Simply taking them all in would mean overwhelming herself too early, filling herself with an incoherent cacophony.

Thus, as she ascended higher, she looked over and sought anything that matched her approach, her archetype, and tried to focus on them, even as she had to look past countless millions of other bits of knowledge.

The instincts gleaned from gathering so much stray understanding was able to elevate her position just a little further, but eventually, her time ran out, and the Heavenly Gallery vanished from her vision.

Instead, she was back in the world, and her energy was overwhelming. The power of the fourth realm and her new Crystal Heart, and in her mind, the concept of her fourth realm movement skill also arose. In the blink of an eye, the air around her turned crystalline, countless facets emerging from the void, coating her – and in the blink of an eye, she was suddenly elsewhere.

Her image remained in the prior spot, still glistening within the crystal, until she snapped her fingers, causing the crystalline facets to shatter, fragments scattering all over.

“Well done on your breakthrough, disciple,” Yi Huang spoke with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, “Your mastery of the Crystal archetype is impressive.”

“Thank you, master… but this was mainly thanks to the contributions of the Dragon of Song, Jun.”

“The Crystal Terror yet lived?”

“Not… truly. I believe she had become a spatial spirit, alongside Su Guo, and formed a spatial realm wherein their insights remained. I was able to take in Jun’s knowledge… and Bianca will have anything that Su Guo had saved up.”

“You’re sure it was her and not Jun’s fellow dragon?”

“Bianca is an otherworldly demon, the same as Su Guo. He was waiting precisely for someone like her…”

“… So that is why time seemed to distort. That Su Guo… fortunately, both of those demons are now gone.”

“Both?”

“The Crystal Terror was a monstrosity that killed countless, and opposed our Righteous Court. It is as much a demon as any of the otherworldly demons, of course!” Yi Huang spoke without a hint of doubt, nor an instant of hesitation.

Lei Kai Lian could not be as confident, but she knew the words expected from her, so she nodded, “Yes, master.”

“Good. Now, I’m afraid that the otherworldly demon has gotten some distance away from us…” Yi Huang turned aside for a moment, as though peering through the trees and stone in Bianca’s direction, “Normally, I would say that we should keep up the pursuit… but as you have just broken through, you ought to stabilise your realm and train in skills appropriate for your new power. We need not fear the demon escaping us forever, as we know exactly where she will go.”

 

“How the fuck did we end up north of the Calm Skies? We were running south, no?” Bianca looked at the map, perplexed, “I know I can be bad with directions, but we all ran together, no?”

“It is the result of the lingering influence of the spatial realm’s collapse, Mistress,” Huang Su replied, her thighs being used as the table for the map.

“All this spatial stuff is just throwing me off… but regardless, I see the necromancers reside not far from there… I’m sure passing by them will be perfectly safe.”

“They are unlikely to be able to observe everything around them, Sect Mistress. If we just go by the coast, passing through Song Village, or head further north past River’s End and by the border of the Eternity Temple, I doubt they’ll catch us.”

“Hm… going too far north feels scary, like leaving the designated path in a theme park.”

“A what?” the kitsune raised an eyebrow.

“Uh, no, don’t worry about it…” Bianca couldn’t help but sigh, ‘It’s always bizarre what stuff gets translated, what doesn’t, and what kinds of things have or have not been introduced into this world… is there nobody that had thought to come up with some weird theme park? Or a railway?’

“Well, regardless, we’ve got dangers no matter which direction we take, so it’s not that important. The southern route will bring us closer to the Heart Lake, and therefore that tyrant in her boat, and to the north, the Eternity Temple could be a major risk, not to mention the factions outside of our Heartlands.”

“I’d ask for advice, but in this case I just want it to go by faster. Let’s take the southern route, pass through Song Village, avoid those necromancers, and just get back to a safe and comfortable place.”

“… You think it’ll remain that way?”

“Huh?”

“The Reaper’s Grave is bound to come under siege before long. The Exarch, Li Wusu, the Blazing Skies, and more have grudges with you, Sect Mistress,” the kitsune pointed out, “And all of them have the strength to attack, if they choose.”

Annoyingly, Xue Yaling made sense – which was more common than Bianca preferred to admit – as while the Reaper’s Grave could protect against the sixth realm, even their repaired array couldn’t hold off a seventh realm expert, not a lengthier, more coordinated assault. This was without even mentioning the fact that getting supplies while surrounded and under siege would be difficult, nor the fact that there were too few of them to hold the sect without leaving a ton of openings for their foes to exploit.

“Unless a seventh realm expert comes along, we should be able to hold on for a while,” Bianca still chose to argue, “Whereas out here, if we get someone from the sixth realm to attack us, we’ll last a few minutes at most.”

“We survived a long while against Long Shiyi…” Song Ming said in jest.

“Yeah, well, if the enemy decided to just let us win, then sure, we can handle anything. However, I’m not particularly keen on testing it by heading straight into the Blazing Skies or Calm Skies to see if their sect master is as submissive as Huang Su is… actually, I don’t even know if they’re male – if they are, don’t tell me, otherwise I’ll throw up.”

“… You’ve trapped yourself there, didn’t you? One way or another, you’d know the answer.”

“I kinda did, yes… so let’s not focus on that any longer than we have to. Let’s move along already, while they may not have caught up yet, there’s no guarantee that they won’t chase us. I’d rather not meet that Oblivion Halo bitch again, something about her just annoys me.”

Xue Yaling nodded, “We can agree on that, at least. Well, I’ve got no complaints about leaving as soon as possible.”

“Then let’s go! Huang Su can go in front.”

“If you wish, Mistr- ah!” the false phoenix let out a moan as Bianca slapped her ass, looking back with an aggrieved look, “D-Did I do something wrong?”

“No, I just like spanking you, because you look adorable whenever I do it. On one hand, I would’ve thought that you’d get it by now… on the other, it means you’re still reacting the same way, so I can’t complain,” Bianca smirked, “Now, unless you want me to keep going, you better move.”

 

“Are we there yet?”

“Mistress, we have been travelling for under an hour,” Huang Su replied, “It is not like you to be like this… usually.”

“It’s fine, I know I can be impatient with this stuff… Ascending the mountain was one thing, but going down and now just going through some plains is boring. Wanna fuck?”

“Sect Mistress, it’s not a good idea. There’s no way of knowing where the Righteous Court have ended up, and if there happen to be necromancers travelling around, you really don’t want to be caught with your cock out.”

“Tch… stop being right, you foxy bitch.”

“No, I will not,” Xue Yaling shook her head, “Look, if you would like to have some fun while we travel, there’s plenty of options beside stopping and actively going at it.”

“… True, I should’ve thought of that. Hm… how about-”

Before a thought could come to her, something suddenly made the earth shake. It was as though a massive giant just took a step besides them, and after a moment, another and another. They were clearly approaching.

“What… is that?”

“A-A Treading Earth…” Song Ming gasped.

“You’re already familiar with them? Surprising for a girl that had been in a far lower realm at the time you would’ve run into one,” Long Shiyi remarked.

“I-It… was near Xi Village.”

“What? How would any of the sects enable something like that? No, wait… that damned Breach archetype.”

“What?” Bianca looked between the two of them, “I’m barely following.”

“There are a number of archetypes that follow basic facets of reality, be that the five elements, Planar, or the like. Then, there are derivatives, compounds, things akin to Prismatic and Crystal. There is also a third category – aberrant, incoherent, born of madness or obsession, or even of otherworldly inspiration. Exarch and Breach archetypes are examples of exactly that, bizarre, incomprehensible… and incredibly dangerous.”

“And corrupting, on occasion. With the Breach archetype in particular, it seems to have peculiar properties when it comes to certain beings, and the reason for this is… unknown to me,” the kitsune agreed, “Perhaps our dragon knows better.”

“Our dragon? No matter what, I’m not yours,” Long Shiyi looked at her with obvious disdain… which looked rather amusing when she was still completely naked, her cock caged, and so eager to oblige Bianca’s requests.

Of course, there was a slight difference between them, in that she could heal the dragon and the kitsune could not… but still, Bianca couldn’t help but smile.

“My dragon, then, Shiyi,” she said, her smile growing into a grin, “But please, do enlighten us to the details of all this.”

“If you insist, Mistress,” Long Shiyi nodded her head, “Most of this type of archetype are able to taint the world, influencing certain beings or planar beasts. It’s usually minimal, but a few concern themselves directly with space and energy.”

“Which means…?”

“The Breach archetype is focused on the age-old theory that planar energy is derived from a separate realm, and it envisions it as a peculiar place of countless interweaving fingers, where beings rule a place unlike anything our minds can comprehend. Through the cultivation of the archetype, they are slowly making that theory a reality, and the Treading Earths are most prone to being affected by it.”

“Actually,” the kitsune muttered, the loud stomps and quakes getting yet nearer, “I’d heard a different story, that the Breach cultivators had done… something to intrude into their world beyond, and succeeded in shattering the boundary for a moment. That left fragments of their Dao crashing down to the earth, animating the Treading Earths in turn.”

“They are not at the point of succeeding in their Dao. They cannot yet succeed in something that excessive.”

Long Shiyi seemed absolutely confident in her words, and ultimately, the kitsune couldn’t argue with it. While she had studied plenty of subjects in her life, she couldn’t confidently say anything on the matter of Dao and the higher realms of comprehension.

On the other hand, Bianca knew even less, and she had no issue with asking.

“What’s this about Dao?”

“The foundation of archetypes in the Eastern Continent was the earlier pursuit of Dao, the goal of comprehending a path that could reach the level of the Heavens, the desire to decipher the foundations of the world… There are more of them than there are archetypes, and more than could ever be counted, for every aspect of existence could be Dao.”

“… Okay.”

“Attaining a Dao involves gathering enough comprehension of it that you can see the world through its perspective, that every action you take can invoke it. One that masters a Dao can use it in all things, and can comprehend all things through it.”

“Sounds fancy. Could I somehow master the Dao of Women, then?”

Long Shiyi rolled her eyes, not even attempting to hide the gesture, “Hypothetically, yes. As I said, anything and everything could be a Dao. The lack of Dao can be Dao, you could comprehend the Sword Dao, Planar Dao, and more.”

It sounded like quite the goal to pursue, even if Bianca didn’t know what kind of Dao she might pick… but of course, the problem was comprehension.

She was excellent at using her skills thanks to the Demonic Tyrant, but even with it, she didn’t understand them, not truly. Her achievements in modifying her abilities – though that should really be a singular term – were only attained through dumb luck and trial and error, not due to her inordinate insight into the Dao of… uh, the Demonic Dao?

If her powers came from an otherworldly gift, was there even a Dao associated with them? Was there some kind of Otherworldly Dao that she could comprehend with her own abilities?

‘If only I was good at something like chemistry, or physics… good enough to master them to the point of Dao, if that even works. I’m pretty sure most things I’ve seen wouldn’t make much sense with any of the theories we have back on Orbis…’ her memory of such things was hazy, but she knew all too well that if some scientist ended up here, they’d have a heart attack the instant they saw planar energy making something out of nothing.

She was quite stunned by it herself, and she didn’t even finish college – albeit through no fault of her own.

“So, uh… the Treading Earth. Are we just going to wait for it to crush us?”

“We are within the territories of the sects. It won’t be left alone for long… either that, or we wait for it to pass, then run before it realises we’re here,” the kitsune responded, and as though to perfectly accent her words, the massive treading form finally emerging into view.