Hao Gongming thought to herself, "According to my calculations, a Rank 10 mage is far stronger than a cultivator in the Reality Transformation stage, but below the third step. On the other hand, an 11th rank mage is definitely in the third step."
The second step of cultivation had only three realms: Imitation, Illusory, and Reality Transformation.
In the realm of imitation, cultivators imitate perfection. When they break through, they achieve an illusion of perfection. After strengthening the illusion enough, they will break through to the reality transformation stage.
In the reality transformation stage, the cultivator must actually become perfect. When they achieve it, they break through to the first and only realm of the third step, Detachment Preparation.
Detachment Preparation has 13 levels.
When cultivators pass the 13th level and become detached, they break through to the fourth step. This is what she learned from looting all those libraries from the sects. As for what comes after the fourth step, she doesn't know, but she knows that even in the third step, destroying entire worlds would not be difficult.
Soon, she and the five mages moved along a red carpet that had been prepared and reached a room that she had put great effort into creating. In this room, a team of boys who had been trained as dancers were waiting. After they entered, they sat down in designated places, and servants served wine. Then the boys began to dance.
The dance was perfect. They were the most talented dancers among millions of people and had trained for this moment for months, so they performed flawlessly and then left.
None of the mages changed their expressions and they all remained silent.
Hao Gongming felt the awkward atmosphere and smiled, saying, "Bring in the strippers."
Many boys in strange clothes and makeup entered and started to dance in a different way.
This time, one of the Rank 10 mages was moved and spoke, saying, "Your Excellency, you have trained them well. Can I borrow your instructors to train my people in this manner too?"
Hao Gongming smiled warmly and replied, "Of course, I will definitely share my experience in teaching them!"
Hao Gongming continued, "Now, let's talk about important matters. I, along with my sect, came here from another world. We are pleading with you to allow us space to develop here."
Unityx21 smiled and said, "How did you come to this world with so many people? You don't seem strong enough."
Hao Gongming looked at him, prepared for this question. "I can open gates to other worlds and transfer people and land to those worlds," she explained.
The four Rank 10 mages looked at her in astonishment.
Such an ability was unbelievable! When they traveled, they could only transfer a small portion of their power, and maintaining the connection was difficult. Furthermore, locating other worlds was challenging.
Unityx21 asked, "How did you find this world?"
Hao Gongming replied, "I didn't know the location, but I can randomly travel to other worlds."
Even Unityx21's expression changed this time.
He proposed a partnership, suggesting that she open portals to other worlds while staying in this world to grow. In return, she would receive a share of the loot.
Hao Gongming liked this Rank 11 mage. He went straight to the point and was very pragmatic. "I agree with this. Now let's discuss the terms of the deal."
After three days of negotiation, she managed to secure 25% of the loot without having to do anything other than opening portals. She also gained the right to recruit disciples from this world and received a set of meditation techniques from the Rank 11 mage.
They decided to open the first portal to another world in five years' time, after they had prepared a significant number of high-level mages.
For normal people, five years might be a long time, but for them, it was actually lightning speed.
Soon, the five mages bid farewell and left, highly satisfied with the deal.
After a while, Su arrived.
Hao Gongming said, "Su, we are going to recruit many new members soon, so be prepared."
Su responded seriously, "But Gongming, we don't have enough cultivation resources even for the current population. It's true that we have a lot of supplies saved, but they will be depleted in a few years."
Hao Gongming reassured him, saying, "Don't worry. In five years, we will acquire so many resources that you'll never run out."
Su looked very doubtful, but then he said seriously, "Hongming, if that's the case, then we should make the sect grounds much bigger! It's bursting with people and definitely can't accommodate more."
Hao Gongming said, "Don't worry about that. I have good relations with mages, so I will ask them to send some people to expand the sect."
Su nodded extremely seriously and left.
Six months later
In the past months, the sect has expanded significantly and can now easily accommodate tens of millions of people. This was made possible with the help of a few Rank 8 mages who specialized in construction.
Hao Gongming looked around and smiled. The development of the sect brought her great happiness. She also announced the recruitment of new disciples in six months. She was eagerly looking forward to it.
But now, she had to become stronger. Her current strength was not enough to resist mages if anything went wrong. So she planned to strengthen herself by traveling alone to another world.
Soon, in her training room, she summoned her clone. The clone opened a portal and waited.
Hao Gongming looked serious and slowly walked into the portal.
...
This world could be described in one word: ocean!
All she could see was endless ocean and nothing more. She traveled for days, searching everywhere, but she couldn't find a single living thing. There were no stars, no space. She even tried diving underwater, but it was just an expanse of endless water.
After a month of searching, she was about to give up and commit suicide to return to the mage world. As she waited for that final moment, she sighed.
Nothing happened in the last moment, like in those novels. In a final act, she exploded her Soul with a massive explosion, and in that moment, she died.
…
The clone, who had been sitting in a meditative position, suddenly stood up and exclaimed, "What a disappointment! What kind of world was that?"
Another clone was quickly created and performed the same action.
Hao Gongming approached the portal and entered.
…
This world was much better. She saw towering buildings reminiscent of her previous life, and people were bustling about everywhere. She smiled and changed her clothes to blend in with the natives.
Soon, she was walking on the ground like an ordinary person. People didn't notice anything strange, and she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. She wasn't satisfied with that.
Killing mortals for experience was like drinking water to get drunk—it was useless. Each mortal provided a meager amount of experience. Even a billion people would not provide as much experience as a Yin Yang Transformation cultivator.
As she prepared to move on to the next world, she suddenly gazed at the sky, a detail she hadn't paid much attention to before.
In the sky, there were no stars except for one—the sun.
On Earth, there were countless stars, but here she couldn't find any other celestial bodies no matter how hard she looked.
"Interesting," she thought.
She took to the air and quickly flew toward the sun. With her speed, she reached the sun in just a day. As she observed it closely, she noticed something peculiar. It was hot and radiant like all stars, but there was something more.
"Why do I feel like I am facing a cultivator? What Is this sensation?"
She extended her divine sense deep into the sun, and her expression changed when she saw what lay at its center. "It's a person! Here must be the cave world owned by him!"
High-level cultivators have personal cave worlds where they rest and cultivate, akin to a much more advanced version of a storage bag.
Hao Gongming smiled and activated her "Overwhelming Strength" skill. This man didn't seem to be at the third step, so she had a good chance of winning.
Killing a second-step cultivator would yield a significant amount of experience.
Without hesitation, she unleashed a punch at the sun with terrifying speed. Instantly, the massive sun disintegrated, and the nearby "earth" was melted by the sheer power of her strike.
The man, who had been punched, woke up with blood at the corner of his mouth, confused. This was his personal cave, and nothing could enter without his knowledge. So, who was this woman?
He set aside his questions and launched an attack.
He cast a spell called "Time Lock" to take advantage of the cave world and manipulate the opponent's perception of time. The cave world still had a tributary of time that was more or less controlled by this man.
For a moment, Hao Gongming froze, but immediately started moving again. The man's spell failed, and he coughed up blood.
Hao Gongming flew towards him with incredible speed and landed a punch on his chest. The man's expression changed, and he immediately cast another spell, "Reverse Time."
Instantly, Hao Gongming's punch reversed, but in that brief moment, the man managed to escape. The spell broke, and the man coughed up another mouthful of blood.
Hao Gongming wasn't letting him get away and chased after him, running at a tremendous speed, attempting to kick him.
The man gritted his teeth and activated one of his trump cards, "Time Mirror."
Another Hao Gongming appeared, identical to the real one, and retaliated with a kick.
The resulting explosion was so immense that the edges of the cave world began to tear apart.
The man immediately ran towards the torn part of the cave.
Initially, he couldn't escape because the key to entering and exiting the cave, the "earth," had been destroyed. But now that it was torn, he was attempting to flee. If he could get out, he could seek help from his sect.
Hao Gongming noticed this and decided to use her other trump card, "Blood Strength."
She burned almost all the blood in her body, causing her strength to skyrocket by a tremendous amount. Her speed became incredibly fast, and before the man could get away, Hao Gongming caught up to him and threw a punch to his head!
The man quickly cast another spell, "Delayed Damage."
This spell delayed the attack to a near-future time, temporarily defending against any immediate damage.
The man was confident that as long as he could escape the cave, he would be able to seek assistance from the sect master and survive the attack.
Hao Gongming's powerful punch struck him in the face, but it had no effect. Then, the man used "Time Jump," a spell that placed himself in a place that he would be in near future, near the hole in the cave world.
Hao Gongming saw the man reaching the hole and getting away. Very unwillingly, she exploded her body and returned to the mage world once again. Regardless, almost all of her body's blood had been burned, so she would have died either way.
The man finally left the cave and hurriedly ran towards the sect master, who was in the stage of Heavenly Immortal.
Just as he reached the sect master, the "delayed damage" effect expired, and his head exploded into a mist of blood.
The duration of "delayed damage" depends on the power of the attack. If it's a third-step cultivator attacking, its effect would be so short that it might as well not exist.
The man had miscalculated the power of Hao Gongming.
Initially, he believed he had enough time to seek help, but after Hao Gongming's power increased, his calculations proved to be wrong.
He died in front of the dumbfounded sect master who was a Heavenly Immortal !