The Ancient Violet Domain was actually a rare type of world where the will of the world split itself into 3 layers of existence. The higher up you went the more resources you would get, of course, to reach these planes you first had to have the proper cultivation.
For example, the lower layer accommodated those at the Embryo, Warrior, and Champion, and the half-step hero realm Empyreans. Once you ascended to the hero realm you had 2 options, you could either ascend to the middle layer or you can stay and willingly allow the realm will to suppress you so your strength is only equivalent to a peak half hero realm Empyrean.
As for the middle layer, it accommodated those from the hero realm to the pinnacle half legend realm existences. The peak layer accommodated legend realm to half lord realm existences.
…
All the half lords of the Ancient Violet Domain were stunned when a pillar of light so swift they could barely even see it crashed through the barrier above the top layer and quickly burrowed down to the middle and lower layers repairing the damage it did behind it.
They had extremely solemn expressions because they knew that that was probably someone above even the earth order who launched that technique whatever it was.
They didn't sense any killing essence, aura, intent, or law from it meaning the person didn't launch it with ill intent but it's still terrifying they can pierce through the realm's defenses so easily.
…
Meanwhile, Dalin and Lin were, as she predicted, separated.
She was over 1000 kilometers away.
When Dalin regained consciousness he wasn't surprised to find she was gone, she had warned him about this while making the formation.
Dalin just sat on the ground and pulled out the earth crystal, he wanted to charge into the bronze rank of the embryo realm before doing anything! He knew that if this world is anything like those in the novels he read, he at least needed that bit of strength to roam around and meet up with her again!
The Embryo realm is split into 9 ranks, the White rank, Violet rank, Bronze rank, Silver rank, Mythril rank, Gold rank, Orichalcum rank, Platinum rank, and Titanium rank.
One's body transforms at the bronze rank, their muscles, tendons, organs, bones, and even their blood are transformed. It's the color that the blood changes to that gave the bronze rank its name because one's blood and internal energy turn bronze colored upon reaching the bronze rank.
Dalin was pleasantly surprised to find his Empyrean Circuits, the organs that allow one to absorb energy in the air and cultivate, were completely free of any impurities.
Normally by the time one turns 10, the age for cultivating, one has absorbed many impurities through their circuits naturally causing them to clog up before one begins to even use them. However, because this body was only constructed several minutes ago, no such impurities existed!
Dalin was naturally happy to find this out, as it would make cultivating so much easier. Normally one would have to find herbs, etc to cleanse these impurities before reaching the gold rank.
So with that, Dalin began to recite the empyrean flame scriptures cultivation technique, the empyrean fire blade technique.
Simply put, one had to condense flames out of empyrean flames into swords.
Of course, if you don't possess the empyrean flames you can substitute this with other flames but the higher the grade of flames the better. Still, it's a fact it requires an elemental natural treasure of flames to utilize, which means its requirements are extremely strict since most elemental natural treasures refuse to submit easily.
The empyrean flames that Dalin's spirit and soul had merged with roared to life as the small dormant ember turned into a tiny candle flame.
It then slowly absorbed energy from the earth crystal and puffed out small candle-sized balls of flames at a rapid pace which exited his body and began slowly forming the 1st sword. Vaguely, a very translucent sword made from pale white burning flames began to take shape.
Dalin needed to fully form 1 to officially become an apprentice white rank empyrean, and at least 3 to become a master white rank, then he has to fuse them together to create his first violet sword. Of course, if he wants a sturdier foundation, he can create many more swords before breaking through, and that's exactly what he intended to do.
However, first, he needed to create the 1st sword to at least 30% completion, then utilize the rebirth technique to discard his cultivation and start again.
Only by doing this several times can he confidently roam in this world. Dalin used to be a general, so he's meticulous when it comes to certain things, this is one of them. He wants to be prepared before facing any enemy.
Meanwhile, Ling was doing the same, she was cultivating the Light Empyrean Scripture since she actually possesses the Empyrean Light!
She was forming a spear of white light while Dalin was forming a sword of white flames.
Although they knew they were in unknown territory, they both had true empyrean scriptures and true empyrean elemental treasures, so they could stay hidden.
So they both made the same decision, cultivate! Cultivate madly! Even though they could stay hidden there was no guarantee someone or something might not accidentally stumble across them, so they were racing against time.
30 minutes passed just like that and Dalin and Lin's first swords were complete.
They could sense each other's cultivation rise vaguely and they smiled looking in the direction of each other despite the vast distance separating them.
Lin couldn't cultivate the rebirth technique for a few reasons, for starters you have to reach your previous cultivation for it to take effect. Since she was well beyond the divine order with her previous cultivation it would take a long time to cultivate to that point again. Of course, that's not to say that she won't use the technique to strengthen herself once she recovers her cultivation. It's just she won't be reaching anywhere near the same heights in it as Dalin.
Once Dalin was done with his first sword to the required amount he activated the rebirth technique and discarded it before starting again.
This process continued several times until Dalin reached the technique's limits, the 10th rebirth.
Dalin's body is now much stronger than someone at the white rank, in fact, his body could be considered on par with a bronze rank right now. Dalin shook his head clearing his thoughts, he began finishing his first sword to completion.
When he was done Dalin smiled.
This meant that Dalin was now a pinnacle apprentice white rank.
He continued cultivating for hours, he formed 9 swords before fusing them and breaking through to the violet rank. In the end, he reached the pinnacle violet rank rather easily, where he then condensed 18 violet flaming swords and fused them into a bronze sword!
The Embryo Realm is all about gathering and condensing energy to form your Embryo which will turn into your warrior spirit at the Warrior Realm. Originally the energy in Dalin's Empyrean core was a faint white mist but as he progressed it turned into a more dense white mist and now it's a violet gas. The next step is to turn it into a clear liquid, once he does that he will have entered the half-step bronze rank.
So, Dalin began compressing the energy in his internal core madly. Eventually, all that violet gas turned into a single clear drop of liquid.
*Drip*
*BOOOM!*
His Empyrean core violently trembled and began slowly expanding.
As this was happening a vortex appeared above his head and spirit energy within a radius of 50 meters began rushing over into the vortex into his Empyrean core.
Drips of clear liquid energy began trickling down like a steady stream into Dalin's empyrean core slowly filling it up.
Once it was fully filled his core stopped trembling and Dalin's aura exploded outward creating a gust of wind blowing grass, leaves, etc away from him.
Dalin breathed out a mouthful of air, and he smiled. However it wasn't time to stop just yet, he was only a half-step bronze rank right now.
He began condensing all of his liquid energy into a single drop of energy forming a pale bronze drop of energy, he was now just touching the barriers of the bronze rank.
Once the drop of energy dropped onto the bottom of his core his core trembled and expanded once again while creating another vortex of energy, all the spirit energy within a radius of 150 meters rushed to him this time and filled up his core with that pale bronze liquid energy.
Dalin looked at his pale bronze flaming sword next to him and focused on refining it to completion, the fusion process of fusing swords didn't create fully completed swords, it only created swords that were barely stable. That's because of the difference in ranks, in fact as he ranked up the minimal requirement for swords would increase.
Once the sword was done, his foundation in the pinnacle quasi-bronze rank stabilized.
Dalin began condensing all his energy one last time!
*Rumble!*
Rumbling could be heard throughout an area of 500 meters.
Dalin was charging into the bronze rank!
His liquid energy was condensed into 32 droplets of slightly more bronze liquid, he then fused 2 at a time bringing it to 16 drops, he then fused them 2 at a time making it 8, 8 turned to 4, 4 turned to 2, and 2… turned to 1…
*Drip*
*BOOOOM!*
A massive energy vortex over 100 meters in diameter formed above Dalin! All the energy within 750 meters was pulled towards him this time.
A couple of people watched this in shock.
'He went from being a mortal to being a bronze rank in 1 day!' The 2 girls watching from a distance thought in shock.
Dalin's Empyrean core shattered and the energy within gushed out.
It turned into his Empyrean puddle, at the silver rank it would become an Empyrean pond, at the Mythril rank an Empyrean lake, at the gold rank an Empyrean Sea, and at the orichalcum rank an Empyrean Ocean.
With the new presence of his Empyrean Puddle, he could finally use spiritual sense! Furthermore, the bronze rank is a divide where the body is entirely transformed. Dalin was currently comparable to an intermediate silver rank in physical strength alone.
Dalin didn't hesitate to activate it and his energy swept out within a radius of 150 meters! Everything down to the smallest bit of dust was revealed to him in that range.
Dalin smiled, however, he knew this wasn't the limit of his current spiritual sense, he strained it to go further, and sure enough, he was actually able to cover a radius of 300 meters, but the clarity is reduced beyond 150 meters. Everything within 150 meters is equivalent to 8k definition, while beyond it, it drops down to 144p slowly.
While Dalin was looking through his spiritual sense he noticed 2 shadowy figures standing on a tree looking in his direction.
They looked up at the angle he was viewing them from and he was surprised to find it was 2 12-year-old girls. They smiled and waved, he even heard them say "Congratulations, senior brother for reaching the bronze rank."
Dalin thought for a moment and used his spiritual sense to send them a communication.
[Thank you, may I know who you 2 are?]
[Were members of the hidden palace, a faction started by our palace master who took us all in from a young age since were orphans, even the elders were taken in by her many years ago.]
Dalin was surprised. 'A power made entirely from orphans… Really interesting.'
[I see, is your hidden palace friendly to outsiders?] Dalin asked.
[We mostly keep to ourselves, but we don't reject outsiders, however, we are wary of them.]
Dalin nodded.
[Am I by chance in your palace's territory?] Dalin asked.
The 2nd girl who remained silent until now nodded and spoke [Yeah you're just on its edge.]
Dalin nodded [I'll leave now then… Is there anything you girls need from me?]
[There is.] The first girl spoke. [One of our sisters went missing around here, it's why we're out here. If you can help find her, we, the elders, and the palace master will be thankful.]
Dalin nodded.
[How long ago did she go missing?] Dalin asked.
[12 hours ago, just before sunrise.]
Dalin frowned…
[Hold old is she by chance?]
[She's about 16, tomorrow will be her designated birthday. She has blonde hair going down to her waist, blue eyes—]
Dalin nodded he didn't hesitate after getting her description. He recalled one of the movement techniques in the flame empyrean scripture. He began circulating his energy accordingly and began using it. He failed the first few times but he quickly got the hang of it. The technique is called 9 mortal steps, 1 step to accompany each of the 9 realms in the mortal order. The 1st step at its peak can allow one to cross 25 meters every step.
Once he got the movement technique to a point where he could cross 5 meters in a single step he began searching the forest following the plan he made with the 2 girls, they weren't the only ones searching, over a hundred members of the hidden palace were looking around for this girl.
The elders were also searching with their supreme spiritual senses being able to cover over 5 kilometers at a time.
Like this Dalin began searching, 4 hours passed, and the night was beginning to fall, this was the time many beasts would start to come out so it was dangerous for someone below the silver rank to travel at such a time.
Dalin didn't care though, 2 hours later he found a cave, but there was a haze surrounding its entrance.
'An illusion?' Dalin thought.
The reason he came to this conclusion is according to Lin the eyes in their new bodies were special and could see through some illusions in the same realm.
He didn't hesitate to walk in, despite the possible danger.
He used the Empyrean flame to create a ball of flames that hovered by his side creating light that lit up the cave.
*Step*
*Step*
Dalin slowly stepped through the cave.