It was the morning of the next day. Rhys was leaving the clan through the south gate. As he walked away while most were busy he wasn't noticed by many. That is except by Edea and Ailin who looked at him with longing eyes.
'I will get stronger so that when you return…!' Ailin muttered in her heart, this was the day that the new rising star known as the Blazing Fairy would make her debut.
Edea on the other hand kept on sighing, her one source of happiness was gone, her daughter and herself would have a lot of things to do and their days would get worst because he was gone.
Rhys had no idea about what was happening and was now running through the roads in the forest. His speed as a True King cultivator was pretty fast, beating normal horses in speed.
His next destination was the city known as Oland, part of the Empire where their clan was located, the Highsky Empire.
It would take him a few days to reach the city, afterwards, he would go to the forest that surrounded the city, where a lot of beasts were located and he could train.
His white coat fluttered in the wind. His long messy blonde hair swayed from side to side as Rhys jumped from branch to branch to speed up.
——
It had been around 10 hours since Rhys had left the city, up to now nothing major had happened, as Rhys jumped from branch to branch he saw a group of bandits attack the caravan of a fat merchant. The guards tried to protect them but the bandits were at the peak of the mortal realm.
This route is supposed to be a safe place, so one can realize why there were not many high-level guards.
'This will serve as a good practice.' Rhys muttered as he jumped down. A glaive appeared on his hand, being a mid-ranked treasure. Treasures were ranked as followed:
Mortal, Inferior, Mid, High, Heaven, Divine, Celestial, and Supreme.
Shng!
With a swing on the glaive, the head of a bandit rolled on the floor.
"What!?" One of the bandits muttered.
"He k-killed Tom! Kill him!" The bandit leader replied, who was a Low True King cultivator.
"Ah!"
"Die!"
"Fool!"
Curses were thrown at Rhys who ignored them and took a stance, gripping the pole of the glaive as he swung it horizontally, filled with cosmic energy it certainly did a lot of damage.
Gah!
Screams of pain resounded, comparing a True King versus a Mortal Lord was the same as comparing a baby to a grown man. They were no match in strength, speed, or cosmic energy quality.
So they all died without knowing how, with only the few who were behind seeing this and screaming as they were hurt by the aftermath of the attack.
Rhys dashed forward, the bandit he targeted trying to use the cosmic energy in his body to cast a defensive technique.
"Invisible Wind Barrier!"
The bandit yelled, as the wind picked up and created a transparent layer of wind in a dome form around the bandit, the name did not match the technique.
Crack!
The barrier cracked under the superior force of Rhys's glaive filled with mana. The bandit was cut in two, blood spilling into the air and covering the other bandits, as Rhys covered himself in a thin barrier of cosmic energy to protect himself.
Many of the bandits continued to be killed by Rhys who didn't bat an eye to the deaths of others. He suffered too much to be some kind hero. Either way, the bandits were clearly the bad guys in this situation.
It took a few minutes for the other bandits to die, only the leader remained.
"You are courting dead boy!" The middle-aged man yelled as he launched forward, a sword in hand. The bandit leader could not tell Rhys was a minor stage above him, so he died.
His low-ranked sword was shattered and destroyed by the mid-rank glaive. Which took his life. Slash, blood spilled as the head of the leader rolled.
During all of this, the guards and the merchant looked at Rhys with eyes full of admiration. Rhys was not well known as he always stayed inside the clan, when he went outside to train he would go through a special route. So not many outside of the clan members knew about him.
'Bah, they didn't even put up a fight.' Rhys muttered in disappointment.
"You are stronger than them, they had low-grade equipment. Not only that, their techniques were only at the mortal rank. What did you expect? Try fighting someone stronger than you!" Ina criticized Rhys harshly.
'I get it…' Rhys sighed.
"Oh benefactor, how can we thank you?" The fat merchant muttered, a smile on his face.
'This man is strong, I must try to get on his good side!' Greed flashed in the old merchants' eyes, as he tried to befriend Rhys.
'He probably does not know which realm I am in… he thinks I am some genius…' Rhys judged.
"It's nothing much, I just did what I thought was right. No need to repay me, I must be on my way now." Rhys replied, before leaving. He did not want to waste any time. He was cautious and untrusting of people because of what he went through.
——
It had been three days since Rhys left the Zuldroan clan, he was at the entry of the Oland. The city was protected by thick stone walls, the walls seemed to be made of special stoned. But Rhys who had knowledge of formations because of Swarshlen could see there were also many formations built in the walls.
'Mid-True Grade Formations…' Rhys recognized the formations.
Rhys soon entered the city using his identification token from the Zuldroan clan.
"The city is pretty big…" He muttered as he scanned his surroundings. He had not slept much, cultivators barely slept unless absolutely necessary.
'There is no need to get a room since I will make a cultivation cave to cultivate the Supreme Eternal Paragon Void Body…' Rhys thought inside his head as he walked straight and headed towards the other exit of the city.
Rhys heard many conversations as he walked, scandals, myths, stories, etc. Many seemed farfetched, but one caught his attention.
"Have you heard the Lord of the city is suspected for the recent disappearances of the missing women?" One old woman spoke, her voice dry.
"Yes, I always thought he was a bad man. This has to be true. I remembered the way he looked at my daughter." A middle-aged woman replied, her looks went to tell she was a beauty back in her prime, so her daughter must also be a beauty.
Rhys thought for a second, he would look into that. He really hated this type of people, it wasn't the first time he heard of such things. He remembered how young women went missing back in the area he lived back in his past life before he was taken as a lab rat.
'Once I get stronger I will…!' Rhys thought to himself as he soon left the city. Moving towards the big forest, where many beasts lived and where he would cultivate and train.
——
Inside of the forest walked a young man, who had long messy blond hair. His golden eyes shone like small suns as his face showed no worry to be inside such a place all on his own.
"Ina, can you sense a good place?" Rhys asked for Ina's opinion.
"Of course, keep walking for a few more minutes and you will find a good place to make a cultivation cave." Ina replied after a few seconds of thinking.
"Mhm." Rhys continued to walk, and soon he found a small cave, it was a stone cave with a river a few miles away.
"It is small but it can be edited." Rhys muttered as he looked at the cave, which was 6'2'' feet tall and 8 feet wide.
"Make it 7 feet tall and leave its width the same." Ina said in his head.
"Right."
Rhys clenched his fist, his arm coated in cosmic energy before he punched the top of the cave.
Bam!
A huge crater appeared in the ceiling of the cave.
"That would take too long… it also won't look good." Muttered Rhys as he stop making a fist.
Fwsh!
Cosmic energy started to form a sword around his hand, using this Rhys easily cut through the stone. Shaping the cave to his size.
It took around half an hour before the cave was to his liking.
"This will do." Rhys nodded as he saw the new cave. He cleaned the debris by pushing it out with a blast of cosmic energy from his body.
Taking a cultivation mat from the jade ring and placing it on the ground, Rhys smiled.
"Make sure to make a formation." Ina told Rhys.
"I have the knowledge, but no experience." Rhys replied.
"Fine, I guess. Inside of the ring, there is a small orb known as the Phantom Orb, it will trick any cultivator and beats within the True realm, but it will need spirit stones to work." Ina told Rhys as he looked in the ring and found an orb that seemed to change shape and disappear.
"Got it." Rhys placed the Phantom Orb near the entrance, taking a peak-grade spirit crystal and placing it near the Phantom Orb. That would be more than enough to power it for the month since peak-grade spirit crystals are used by Saint realm cultivators to cultivate.
Once it was all set up, the orb flashed for a split second before it absorbed the cosmic energy in the spirit crystal and made an illusion that the cave entrance was not there.
"Now get ready, I will take out Void Caller, which will distort space and cause the energy of the Void to appear in this world. Make sure to circulate the technique well or you will die!" Ina warned Rhys, who nodded and took off his coat and shirt, only his pants remaining. His toned body being in full display. He sat down on the red cultivation mat, his breathing calming as he steeled his nerves.
"I am ready!" Rhys told Ina who did not reply.
Bam!
Crack!
The moment he said those words a glaive appeared, it was a beautiful black glaive with a purple blade, the pole having multiple lavender patterns. The purple blade was around 2 feet tall, the pole was 6 feet. The glaive was 8 feet tall.
The moment it appeared and touched the ground space started to destabilize. The fabric of space shattered as wisps of purple energy appeared in the surroundings, the energy of the void.
"Beautiful…" Rhys muttered before Ina spoke in his head loudly, "FOCUS!"
The moment he heard those words Rhys started to circulate the Supreme Eternal Paragon Void Body Cultivation technique. This would grant him the Eternal Paragon Void body, or physique as some call it.
He would start at the first level at the technique and would slowly move up.
The first stage was where one would absorb the energy of the void to temper the body slowly, getting it used to the chaotic energy of the void.
Shng!
Immediately the purple wisps started to be absorbed by Rhys's body, who tried to keep the new energy in control.
"Gah!" Rhys grunted as he felt the chaotic energy of the void flow through his meridians. It felt horrible since his meridians were only used to fire and nature cosmic energy, not this chaotic energy.
The energy kept on appearing and being absorbed by Rhys. His body was soon covered in sweat, cuts, and blood. His body having trouble withstanding the energy of the void. This energy also had another name, Aether.
Aether inflated Rhys's meridians as they moved towards his dantian. This was very dangerous. Since there was a stage in the Mortal Realm called "Dantian Transformation." Where the dantian would evolve to be more in tune with the elements of the cultivator, in Rhys's case that was Fire and Nature. This meant that the Aether would probably mess his core up. Thankfully the Eternal Paragon knew this and made sure a new dantian that could support Aether would form, without losing the previous attunements.
The procedure was agonizing and slow, Ina kept watch throughout the whole procedure. If she had a physical form, one would see her face full of worry.
"It hurts like hell…" Rhys spoke through gritted teeth. Aether was making a mess of his body, but it was changing his body slowly.
——