Every inch of the gloomy landscape was covered in perfect white.
Occasionally the humming wind would sweep by, whipping up the powdered snow in blustery swirls, forming airy trails across the landscape that resembled smoke.
The natural light was already fading, signifying that the end of another short winter's day was fast approaching.
Two human figures stood out like shining bulbs in the endless sea of snow, standing ten meters apart on a hill filled with natural beauty, the environment around them was tranquil and calming.
The frigid wind blew pass their silhouettes, tugging at the hems of their fluttering robes.
Patriarch Zhang smiled, he was short and very thin, with sharp features and silvering hair. He stood straight-backed, white robe and fur coat flapping to the whims of the wind. Looking rather sage-like and regal.
"You're full of yourself, but your confidence is misplaced, you don't know enough to know what you've gotten into."
The skinny old man's voice held a certain air of authority, as if correcting a youth on the wrong path.
"You, young man, are guilty of doing too much while knowing too little.
There's a reason why a new born calf isn't afraid of a tiger. Now, let's find out how accurate Zhang Yi's report was."
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Hartley asked casually, borderline mockingly.
"You'll know soon enough, first you'll repay the two limbs you owe to the House of Smiths."
The skinny old man flashed a vicious look, leering at Hartley with venom, apparently finished with the pretentious pleasantries.
There was a subtle change in the atmosphere immediately.
Hartley knew right away that the old man had engaged his domain.
Dull shadows from the leaf-less trees stretched across the snow like skeletons reaching out.
Patriarch Zhang's figure seemed to distort for a second, flickering in and out like a malfunctioning screen, then he blinked out of sight completely.
All the scattered shadows around seem to come alive. Lengthening, thickening, darkening and joining together, forming a featureless black figure that rose to its feet like a giant human.
The black as midnight humanoid materialised from wispy shapes of darkness, sucking away the shadows and adding it to its six meter frame.
Darkness streamed from its body like water. Instantly weaning away all the light in a one kilometre radius, submerging the entire hill into perpetual darkness.
The velvet-smooth layer of snow underfoot transformed from pearl white to being as black as crude oil.
The thick tsunami of darkness overwhelmed everything in its path as if it was alive.
All Hartley could see was black before his eyes, swallowed in darkness, his feet felt like they were sinking through the earth.
Luckily he had experience in this so he didn't panic, when he had first entered the pocket dimension he had been trapped in a similar situation.
He retained his freedom of movement but the darkness had arrived so fast that it left him a little disoriented, he had completely lost his bearings. He couldn't even tell what direction he was facing, his awareness was being blocked inside this darkness.
There was a simple solution to this. That was his time domain.
The six meter tall humanoid, made from shadows, roared like a dark spectre released from the bowels of hell.
The sound battered Hartley's ears from every direction, further adding to his disorientation.
Hartley wasted no more time, he countered by engaging monochrome.
All sounds faded away, the world went eerily quiet and tranquil around him, the claustrophobic darkness bled away, reverting back to a black and white snapshot of the previous picturesque scene.
Hartley spun around to evaluate the threats around him, the genderless shadow humanoid loomed large above him, frozen in suspended animation like a blotch of blotted ink. Its long shadowy arms reaching down towards Hartley.
A glowing white apparition flew from the humanoid's stationary body.
It was mist-like with smoky wisps trailing its every movement, dashing forward to attack in a blurry streak.
An indistinct fist formed, churning like glowing clouds of billowing smoke, extending to the size of a carriage, blurring as it came down like a meteor and slammed into the ground, creating a ten meter crater.
After-images of the punch floated in the air, aimed at where Hartley's undefended back would have been.
The ghost-like apparition then wriggled and faded away, dissipating like smoke at the end of the simulated attack. The process of the attack restarted again as if on replay. This was a new feature in Hartley's upgraded time domain.
After breaking into the saint realm, whenever he implemented his time domain, the next actions of any hostile combatant would be predicted and demonstrated by white apparitions.
Hartley immediately figured out the trap, this humanoid shadow had a simple independent thought process, meaning it was not the patriarch transformed.
It was most likely something he had trained in his domain, its wispy ghost-like form suggested that it was immune to physical attacks.
Anyone caught in this shadow domain would first struggle with disorientation
The discombobulated victim would either stand his ground and get cut down from the back by the shadow humanoid, or run around frantically trying to evade whatever was lurking in the darkness.
Most likely to end up running around in circles before being picked off.
Anyone who reflexively tried to defend themselves with physical attacks would be doomed.
It was almost a full proof strategy against an inexperienced opponent, no wonder the Patriarch was so confident. He must be watching with glee.
Hartley watched the white apparition again, taking note of the shadow's speed and angle of approach.
He relaxed, smiled and uttered, "interesting."
Despite the advice of Kang, Hartley was going to brute force the saint realm into submission.
Four left-handed finger gestures were executed in a single motion, Hartley then waved his right hand with vigour, black energy sizzled to life in front of him, snapping and crackling like frying eggs.
The black energy twisted and roped into a spiral under his control, then he injected his immense blue elemental power that spun in the opposite direction. High density gravity was applied to the mix and boom! The ground shook.
Hartley cracked open a black hole with ease. A small implosion sent crackling black electricity zig zagging at its edges.
The sequence was smooth and practiced.
Hartley's hair billowed wildly around his face, his robe fluttering violently as if he was falling from the sky. Flashes of his blue elemental power reflected in his sapphire eyes.
The raging nucleus of the black hole spun counter clockwise like a tornado, eager to devour anything and everything, sucking at the world like a hungry vacuum cleaner.
He disengaged his time domain immediately, using the black hole as his shield.
Whoosh, time returned to normal.
Everything blinked back to pitch black.
The suffocating darkness returned, the head splitting roar of the shadow humanoid sounded out vociferously.
Just as predicted, the wispy form of the shadow humanoid came flying forward with its attack.
Its defiant roars turned to a screech of anguish in a sudden change of fortune.
The pitch black ground trembled, it sounded like grenades and gunfire was kicking off, the screams of the humanoid shadow raised to a higher octave, it fought desperately to escape the clutches of the portal.
Its six meter frame was being sucked violently through the tennis ball sized black hole.
In a blink, the humanoid shadow was up to its elbow in the black hole, then the shoulders then torso, then with a whoosh...
Everything disappeared, leaving flashes of black sparks contrasting with the white of winter.
The tacky tar of darkness disappeared instantly, the domain was broken with the demise of the humanoid shadow.
Silence!
Muted greys and whites of the winter's evening returned, restoring the calming atmosphere. Snow continued to swirl above the ground, swept up and down the hill by the wind.
It only lasted a few seconds but the black hole took chunks of the terrain like a nuclear strike.
"Impossible!"
Patriarch Zhang screamed, he was spat from the void face first into the snow, puking up blood on his white fur coat, rebounding and bouncing a couple times, ending up sprawled in an awkward position.
Unable to hide his utter shock.
Big chunks of earth were missing in front of Hartley's position. Showing the brown earth deep beneath the snow.
"You're in the second layer of the saint realm. How?"
Patriarch Zhang lost his authoritative demeanour as he stuttered.
Hartley smiled without answering, dusting the debris from his clothes, his hair was now a mess, looking like he'd just crawled out of a hole looking for discarded bits of food.
He looked up. "Was Zhang Yi's report true, do you feel like the calf who wasn't afraid of the tiger?" He asked looking smug.
Even if Hartley was a saint like Zhang Yi had reported, he could only be a newly promoted saint with a weak domain. There was no way he should be in the second layer.
The time frame wasn't adding up, Patriarch Zhang's mind was unravelling like a frayed doormat.
What he didn't know was:
When Hartley had broken into the xiantian realm, he climbed directly to the second layer.
Again Hartley had broken directly into the second layer of the saint realm.
This can be credited to the blue star fragment in his body.
Blue swirls wrapped around Hartley's body and he was instantly next to the patriarch, a puff of blue sparks outlined his body, it was a magical sight in the sea of white, like a fairy releasing glittery dust.
Fear thrummed through the old man's veins striking deep at his bowels.
He jumped to his feet ready to defend, he wouldn't be defeated so easily, he had way too much cards up his sleeve.
Hartley made his move without fear of breaking the threshold for power.
Patriarch Zhang saw a sudden flare of black energy blaring out around the young saint who moved towards him.
The skinny old man scrambled backwards through the snow in an undignified manner, genuine fright etched across his face. Putting a little distance between himself and the saint who was about to be devoured by black energy.
A sense of relief washed over the patriarch, this was one of those stupid saints that craved power to his own detriment.
One has to understand that every layer one ascended in the saint realm, was one layer closer to being erased by black energy.
The patriarch was happy to stay in the first layer and live out his thousand years in comfort and leisure. His shadow domain would do all the work for him, he just needed to develop another shadow creature.
Five seconds later.
Something was off, from twenty meters away Patriarch Zhang looked closer at the situation through squinted eyes.
There were no screams of pain or chaotic running around begging for help, the young saint was still taking casual steps in his direction, his blue eyes delivering a piercing stare through the darkness surrounding him.
Lethal black energy roped around his body like a hypnotized snake, twinkling with shards of flickering black light.
Mouth hanging open in surprise, the patriarch couldn't believe his eyes, he lost all hope again, sweating at his temples, it was like dying twice in a matter of minutes.
Whoosh!
Hartley smiled at the startled man, then moved like lightning, a black streak trailing behind him over the white background. Of course Hartley opted for brute force again.
Patriarch Zhang was immediately covered in shadows as if he was trying to engage his domain again, but without the shadow humanoid, it was severely underpowered.
Thump!
The patriarch received a hefty punch, not even registering when it landed on his right shoulder.
His measly domain popped like a bubble, the shadows scattering away from him like roaches across the ground.
Patriarch Zhang made a screeching scream unbefitting a saint, he flew off the hill to crash into a sturdy leaf-less tree, smashing it to a million pieces, jolting the ground when he landed, opening wide spider web cracks across its snowy surface.
He was flattened, body pressed into the ground.
He wailed like a new-born, he couldn't remember the last time he was subjected to physical pain.
The powdered snow fluttered about back and forth around him like smoke.
Hartley approached, leaving footprints all the way down the hill, flashes of black forbidden energy crackling around his right hand.
It was an unbelievable sight, this was magic, the patriarch couldn't put it any other way.
"Kang said to say hello," Hartley spoke nonchalantly and didn't attack again. Kang had mentioned the alliance of saints at their last meeting, Hartley didn't know too much about the organisation so he didn't act rash.
Patriarch Zhang was relieved, it felt like he had died three times since encountering Hartley.
He exhaled a deep sigh, he managed to sit up, his clothes a mess after wallowing through the dirt and snow and his right shoulder hung limp.
It took some doing to shatter the bones of a saint, even if that saint was only in the first layer.
Hartley managed it.
The patriarch sat up with a forced smile that looked more like crying.
"You are acquainted with Kang, I never knew that, you should have mentioned it from the start. I would have given you some face."
Patriarch Zhang acted like a magnanimous host.
The last thing he needed was to cross that mad man on top of taking this brutal beating. He loved his status and life too much.
"Don't step foot into the western hills again."
Hartley's warning lingered in the air, but he was long gone, only a few blue sparks were left in his place.
****
Weeks went by in a flash, the capital began to settle down as distinct lines were drawn between factions.
A proud flag fluttered like a sail in the breeze, sat atop a twenty meter-high spire.
The black bear standing on its hind legs was quickly becoming a symbol of power, this emblem was embroidered in black, spanning the full height of the white flag.
It lauded over the manor of the western hills for all to see.
Some major nobles had thought that once they'd secured a big enough base of operations, they could then turn their eyes on the west, it would be the cherry to finish the cake.
Shockwaves tore through the aristocratic circles, everyone had a culture shock, even the princes.
While they squabbled among themselves, the west had become one entity, united in their repulsion of any invading forces.
High numbers of xiantians, troops, and explosives, ripped theses forces to bits. Survivors were few.
One major noble who had eeked out a large slice of the capital for himself was decimated, losing everything he'd gained.
The west was definitely the third power in the capital.
It was rumoured that the western hills even had the backing of an unknown saint, a few saints had flown into the direction of the western hills to dispel the myth, they were soon seen leaving without a peep.