Ch 51: The(?) Upper Realm

Narrator’s view:

A giant pillar of light appeared, larger than any had ever seen before.

“It’s outside the world boundary!”

“It’s the size of a small continent!”

The first thing to appear, were leaves.

“Is that a tree?”

If that’s a tree, it’s the largest tree in this world! Possibly in all worlds!”

“It looks bigger than the entirety of the world I came from.”

Alice’s view

Well… it was a bit painful as we got slammed into place in this new world, like a puzzle piece just added in by an overly eager assembler. My roots do not appreciate being smooshed like that!

It was weird seeing the sky box fade and get replaced by actual sky. Which led me to realizing there was a problem I needed to quickly fix: my leaves were creating too much shade. The land needs light!

Thankfully, I had reached the point where I could properly reform my body, and made my leaves and much of my branches mostly clear, like stained glass. With a bit of trickery, I could even make the light below not be colored despite the coloration of my branches and leaves. Required messing with ambient light levels. Gotta be weird though for people looking up and seeing a sea of green. Sorry about that.

I will say it’s really nice to feel the breeze through all my leaves again. The space outside the world boundary was really unpleasant.

Sadly, while the sky seems to be real here, and properly rounded, there’s still a world boundary on the sides. It’s as if I’m part of an incomplete spherical world now. The ki here is pretty nice, much denser than when we were in a lower realm. There’s more ground beneath too, though I’m not too keen to keep exploring in that direction, since what I can feel is just magma.

Ch 52: Greetings

It didn’t take long for people to start showing up. Some flew, some just seemed to appear (teleportation maybe?).

I left the whole ‘saying hello’ thing to others. I didn’t really want to get involved in politics and had avoided it this whole while, so I wasn’t about to introduce myself. However, of the seven who ascended from our world in the past 20 thousand years, three of them know me. Thankfully I was able to improve my doll to proper human size and proportions in time to greet my visitors.

It wasn’t at all surprising when Catherine and Fenrir showed up, but the former Lord of the North was unexpected, and so were the 12 beast emperors of the upper realm. Catherine and Fenrir introduced me to them, as the lord of our world. The most interesting thing of all to me though, was the tree spirit who arrived.

“You have got to tell me how you did that! I tried so hard to grow, but I could never get as big and strong as you have!”

Apparently, it’s common for plant spirits to resort to taking human form and using human cultivation methods to grow stronger, which of course hinders their growth as plants. While this woman was quite a lot stronger than me, apparently when she transforms into a tree, she’s little more than a large tree. Nothing of truly gigantic size. I decided to compile what I learned on the topic of cultivation as a tree into a book and gave her a copy, with the stipulation that she needed to share the information with other trees and plants. Of course, I needed to first explain much of it to her to ensure she wouldn’t misunderstand the contents of my book.

“So that’s the trick. When I tried pulling in ki faster, to speed up my growth as a tree, it just destroyed the land and left it barren. They called me a demonic tree back then. When I gained human form, I found a way to practice human cultivation so I wouldn’t destroy the land, but then I have to compete with humans and beasts for territory. All the good locations are taken already. This ki breathing technique of yours should let me make any territory into a good place to cultivate. Maybe I can even get followers like you have.”

Tessa listened in on the explanation and asked, “Do you think that ki breathing technique might work well for humans too?”

“I’ve really got no idea. Maybe?”

Ch 53: Conflict

It seems my diplomats have failed me. There’s an argument brewing outside about who’s territory the new land shall be, and it doesn’t look like it will end peacefully.

I had been planning to just ignore it, since I’m not part of any sect, and who claims the land is generally not something I would expect to need to pay much attention to when I live in the wilds surrounded by mystic beasts. However, it seems I accidentally got a bit too much attention when a stray attack hit my barrier. Or rather, hit my world’s barrier.

In my worry about the safety of the world, I’d slowly assembled the most powerful barrier formation I could, powered by the world itself. The world produces ki. I don’t know how it works, but ki just rises from the ground. Except when I checked what was below the ground, there was nothing there. The bottom layer seemed to just spontaneously produce ki. 

Had I not been employing my ki breathing technique to ensure ki entered the world and earth above my roots, and just been pulling in ki like humans and beasts usually do, it would’ve stopped the flow entirely. This is why I’m so absurdly huge: the amount of ki I’m handling now is absurd even for someone who’s ascended. Admittedly, if I actually got into a fight, I’d need it because I’m entirely incapable of dodging. In fact, there’s a good chance I’d still lose against someone else of similar cultivation level, due to being a gigantic rooted tree. In fact, being large is a serious disadvantage in cultivator fights due to power density issues.

So, in summary, I was large, had a ton of power, and used it to make a gigantic barrier for the entire world. It wouldn’t protect against threats inside the world, but that wasn’t what it was designed for. It was designed to protect the world itself from outside threats because I wasn’t certain that the empty void was truly empty.

This is relevant because the attack was strong enough to strain the barrier, despite not even being directed at us. If they had actually been trying to break the barrier, they would’ve succeeded. 

Something about the attack felt very wrong, as if it violated the basic laws of the world. I just wasn’t at all clear on what law was being broken. I do know that whatever law was being broken resulted in the attack being much harder to block than it should’ve been. A good barrier doesn’t just take hits, it disperses the energy of attacks so there’s less to block. I wasn’t able to disperse the energy at all, making it just a brute force contest that my barrier barely won.

However, this was apparently shocking to everyone present.

Ch 54: A helping… paw?

“We demand the master of this land show themselves! It’s clear the leaders we’ve seen are not the true masters!”

Since I had some seemingly important mystic beast emperors as guests, I decided to ask if they would be willing to help me deal with jerks outside. 

“Heh, those arrogant bastards deserve some humbling. I’d be happy to help!”

“Me too! Just give me some more of your fruits please?”

“Oh yeah! I don’t normally care for vegetables, but the ones you’ve provided are really delicious!”

“I’m not one to turn down a chance to beat up some human deities. I’ve seen too many die to their greed.”

“I guess I’ll go too. It’s not often we do things together.”

“Are we making this into a party?”

“It’s already a party! We’re just adding some entertainment! Haha!”

“Well I’m not gonna miss this!”

“...”

“...”

“...”

“I’m staying.”

All but one of the 12 beast emperors got up and left. 

“Hey, can you teach me how you made kits with Catherine?”

Ch 55: Battle

While the battle raged outside,  I handed the bunny-girl a copy of the book I’d made on that very topic, and explained it to her as we looked through it together. It was a bit of a surprise to learn one of the beast emperors was a bunny, but not such a surprise when she decided to stay, while all the carnivores left. 

I was grateful that the emperors had all taken human forms, as it made it much easier for me as the host, though it was interesting to see how they all retained some features from their true form as a sign of their pride in what they were. It’s not like they were trying to disguise themselves, after all. I was careful not to mention how cute the bear lady looked; she seemed like someone who wouldn’t appreciate it.

---

Tessa’s view

When the emperors left to fight, I followed to watch, making sure to stay within the barrier. It was a bit sad to know I wasn’t strong enough for such a fight despite being able to complete the ascension stage within moments of arriving here. If I understand what’s happening correctly though, these are the strongest people in the upper realm that are fighting now, so being completely overwhelmed by it is entirely normal.

While this fight began over ownership of the land, it doesn’t look like that’s the real reason for it. The beast emperors and the human emperors seem to have deep grudges against each other. This is clearly not the first time they’ve fought.

The weirdest fight is probably the two who seem to just be staring at each other. I don’t really know what’s going on, but I can feel enough ki fluctuations to know they are fighting. I just have no idea how they are fighting. Oh, they both collapsed and are bleeding profusely now… how does one collapse in the air? They looked like they fell to the ground they’d been standing on, except they were standing on air and ended up lying on air. The blood just fell.

Now the human emperor pulls out a pill and swallows it. The blood stops flowing and he stands back up.

“Humans will always triumph over beasts! Our expertise will always surpass that of you muscle heads!”

The lion emperor stands, pulls out an apple Alice had given him and eats it in one bite, his blood then too stops flowing.

“Ha! You aren’t the only ones with healing now!”

“What?! Sacred fruit?! You got it from that tree! We can’t let you have that tree!”

“You don’t have a choice! We failed to protect the sacred tree last time, we won’t fail again!”

… Did Alice do something ridiculous again without realizing it? Sacred fruit? I know her fruits contain a lot of ki, but I’ve not heard them called sacred before. I guess this means it’s now a fight over Alice?

Ch 56: Power of formations

One week later:

Just how long is this battle going to last? I’ve had enough time to consult Bess (the bunny emperor) regarding the basics of cultivation in the upper realm, and even begin integrating what I’ve learned into a formation to help the other beast emperors. Bess is an expert in space law and barriers. With her help, my barrier is now able to withstand the stray shots fairly easily, deflecting most of the energy of the attacks. Attacks that are not aimed properly are really easy to deflect, though I’m still too new to fully deflect them.

I was also able to build and activate a formation I’m far more familiar with: vitality boost. Making one large enough and powerful enough to assist the emperors wasn’t easy, but here in the upper realms, there's more ground beneath where the world had previously ended, and there’s way more total energy coming up from below. Easily 10 times as much, so I’ve got energy to spare.

Bess explained that formations of this size are rare, even in the upper realm, because it’s difficult to obtain enough materials of sufficient quality. I’m using my own body as materials.

“I guess you don’t realize just how valuable divine wood is.”

“Uh, no?”

“I’d say you must be lucky to have gotten so many powerful friends to protect you, but I suppose luck doesn’t really have anything to do with it. From the stories of Catherine and Fenrir, we’d already been inclined to protect you if we could, since you were clearly a friend to us mystic beasts, and seeing you welcome us with such precious fruits and food, it’s obvious we can’t let the humans have you.”

Emperor Vane’s view

How… how are we losing? While we’d never been able to defeat the beast emperors before, it was because the sects that were near beast lands would refuse to help in fear of retribution. They are helping now! How are we still losing?

“Whomever is in control of that land created a formation to heal the beast emperors. We will lose this battle of attrition.”

“We have pills! Don’t tell me the alchemist house is holding back on us!”

“Sir, we will run out at this rate. The beasts show no sign of running out of sacred fruits and their recovery speed has been sped up by a new formation that wasn’t there at the start.”

“That tree should be ours! We’re the strongest here!”

“There are too many enemies. Even you cannot fight so many at once when they have defensive formations to protect them.”

“... fine, retreat! Don’t think this is over, beasts! I will take that tree for myself!”

Ch 57: A new legend

Somewhere in the upper realm:

“Did you hear about that new continent?”

“The one ruled by beasts?”

“I heard there’s new trade routes going there.”

“What? That’s impossible, the beasts don’t trade!”

“They aren’t trading with beasts, it’s said there are human sects on that land.”

“How can that be? Beasts don’t let humans live on their land.”

“It’s said there’s a secret master hiding in that land. A master so powerful, they subdued both humans and beasts under their rule.”

“Could there really be such a thing? This isn’t a new Tyren is it?”

“I sure hope not. The legends of beast master Tyren are as amazing as they are awful.”

---

God’s view

That was supposed to end with her death. I’d successfully rallied all the strongest humans against her. It was a force that should’ve been able to defeat even the 12 beast emperors. Yet, somehow, her support was enough for the beasts to win.

Alice is breaking the balance of power in the upper realm, and her influence threatens to put the beasts in charge over humans! That’s something I absolutely cannot allow. She needs to die, so I can take back control over the fate of this world, even if I do have to cheat a little.

---

Alice and Tessa

“No, no no noooo!”

“What is it, Alice?”

“I’m sorry, Tessa, I have to die.”

“What? Why?”

“Someone… someone planted world killing seeds! If I do nothing, they’ll devour all the ki here, and even start devouring life force as well once the ki dries up!”

“Why does that mean you have to die?”

“Well, I can’t let them kill my land like that! The only way to get rid of it is to grab it and throw it outside the world. Just touching the things will poison me badly. Everything that touches them will die. It must be the doing of that terrible god.”

“Why? Why would they do that?”

“How should I know? I don’t even know why they’d risk allowing such a thing to exist! If it were ever misused they could lose their entire world!”

“Can’t you find another way to deal with the problem?”

“There’s no time. I have to do it today, or people will begin to die, and the land will rot. This… this awful thing! Promise me one thing Tessa.”

“What?”

“When you are strong enough, hunt down the people responsible and kill them. Destroy all knowledge of how to make those horrid things. Only a Demonic Sect would use such a method of gathering power.”

“I thought you said any who touched it would die?”

“That’s normally true. However, someone who cultivates in rot and death and waste would be able to refine and use these as a source of ki. Only the most horrid cultivators could survive such a method. One would have to embrace death and destruction as a way of life. Goodbye Tessa. I’ll make a small doll for you to remember me by. If god is the one responsible, there’s no guarantee I’ll be back. She might be done with me.”

“You’ll be back. I’ll find you no matter what.”

***Author Note***

What the heck god?! That wasn’t supposed to happen!

This is supposed to be a happy and fun story, not a tear jerker!