Leng Yue was sitting in the pod in the QR pod cafe at Market Square, ready to start his first match of the junior division of the Arena tournament. He was thankful for qualifying, and reaching the finals, but he regretted that he wasn't part of the first expedition of the Hidden Eye sect that initially made contact with Sun & Moon island. It turned out that categories were decided by two variables, the familiarity with the artifact first, and your realm second. He chased away the distracting thoughts, as he sat down in the virtual realm. Two events were planned for today, Arena and Sage. Today was the individual arena tournament at all levels and realms, and the champions would be decided by the end of the day. The Sage tournament would start today, and go through the most of the event since the time required for victory was different. One of his close friends had become addicted to the game, and had also qualified for today's tournament which had been a cause of celebration.
As he sat in his 'Home', the main menu that every user could customize to their liking, a change happened as his surroundings disappeared. It felt like the change happened so fast that they had moved in less than a blink of the eye.
"Welcome to the finals of the Pinnacle", Leng Yue heard, "Today, the sixty four of you will battle you way to the top to become the champion of the Junior division of the Qi Gathering realm. Please let me take a moment to reiterate the rules before we start."
The man standing before the group started to repeat the rules that he had heard before each round before, so he just started to look around. From his vantage point he could see thirty two stadiums that were exactly like the one he had fought in before to reach this point.
"It seems everyone understands the rules", the man announced, "So next is the placement. Starting on the left, and going to the right, come forward one at a time and draw a token."
The one the man pointed at first immediately walked forward, reached into the box, drew a token, and retuned to his spot. The contestants went one after the other, and Leng Yue noticed an odd look on their faces as they returned. He walked forward when it was his time, and when he reached into the book and took a token, he noticed the problem. The token was pure black with no other markings, so he looked at the people who went before him. Their tokens were also the same color, so Leng Yue decided it was a special method to prevent cheating.
Once everyone had a token, the man in charge spoke again, "Now that everyone has chosen their token, I will ask you to hold it up. Once you do, you and your opponent will teleport to the arena assigned to that token, and the referee will take over. Now in three, two, one…"
Once again, Leng Yue found himself forcefully teleported to an arena.
"Welcome to Arena 13, you must be Leng Yue, correct?", a woman suddenly spoke.
He turned around, "Yes, I am Leng Yue."
The woman nodded and turned toward the other way, "and you are Chen Xi?"
"I am", another young man replied.
"I am Shuang Hua, and I'm the referee for arena 13", the woman said, "You both should have had heard the rules, but I can answer any questions you might have."
Neither contender said anything so Shuang Hua continued, "We have five minutes before the match starts. Stay on your side of the field until then."
Leng Yue walked over the area meant for participants, and began reviewing his abilities, techniques, and strategies. He did get distracted for a moment when he realized that the seats of the arena were filling with spectators. He went be to adjusting his condition, and a few minutes later, a loud voice from nowhere spoke out.
"We want to welcome you to Sun & Moon island to watch the strongest of the three continents battle each other to reach, the Pinnacle", the announcer said.
As the voice was speaking, referee Shuang Hua had motioned to both men to enter the arena.
"Today, everyone is invited in witnessing the combatants as they continue their journey to the top. The events for today is Arena, where opponents face each other to prove who is the strongest, and Sage, where luck and strategy hold the fate of the challengers. I've been told that everyone is ready, so Let's get Started!", the announcer shouted.
Shuang Hua spoke next, "Match, begin."
Leng Yue immediately cycled his Qi, and used his movement technique, 'Moonstep'. One of the unique features of watching the battles in the virtual realm was that no matter the technique, the audience could see the battle. This was done on purpose because the organizers were afraid that if you had to illusion users battle each other, you would have a boring match of two cultivators standing in place, apparently doing nothing.
As Leng Yue moved around the field, he was targeting certain areas to create an array to amplify his mental arts. As he moved around, the battlefield began to change as day turned to night, a bright moon appeared, and the temperature dropped. Just like his name 'Cold Moon', his cultivation method was 'Winter night's breath'. His opponent was wary at first, but he seemed to notice that Leng Yue was setting up something, so he sprinted towards Leng Yue with a halberd that ignited.
Just as his opponent swung the halberd at him, Leng Yue made a motion with his hands, and the moon that looked like it was made of ice quickly blocked the strike. Undeterred, Chen Xi did not stop at the first attack, and followed up with several more.
Leng Yue was slightly disappointed that his opponent did not wait longer before attacking, because his technique was supposed to hypnotize when completed. Instead, he had to continue blocking but he thought of a way to take advantage.
When Leng Yue saw the big windup of the next attack, he used the 'moon' to block and the force of the attack to throw him across the arena making space between the two of them. There he quickly continued to move, and after three more steps, completed the technique.
When Leng Yue looked at Chen Xi again, he was slightly disappointed, because it was apparent that his opponent was trying to resist the hypnosis. So he changed the moon from full to a crescent moon, and threw it at his opponent. When the moon was about to hit Chen Xi, the enemy's halberd moved and blocked the attack. The crescent moon quickly returned to his hand, and he tried again, but Chen Xi swung his weapon and a similar attack met and blocked his attack again.
'Intent!', Leng Yue thought to himself, 'No wonder he did not fall to my hypnosis, cultivators that cultivate intent are difficult to mesmerize.'
He cursed his bad luck, and tried to attack several more times without success. On the last time it returned to him, he broke the crescent into two pieces and used one as a saber, and the other a sword. Chen Xi had been closing the distance towards him each time he threw the crescent moon weapon, and was too close now.
The two entered in a melee as Leng Yue used both weapons to block the halberd, and try to find opportunity to finish the fight. He was about to initiate the next plan when Chen Xi's weapon suddenly flared up causing a bright flash against the dark. Leng Yue had not been ready, and when he realized what happened, he quickly went to retreat. Unfortunately, before he could, he felt an agonizing pain as Chen Xi's halberd pierced his chest.
"Winner, Chen Xi", Shuang Hua announced as Leng Yue lost awareness of his surroundings, and woke back up in his pod.
Wei Houran had spent most of the day watching the battles, but now he was escorting all the leaders to the life realms to explain how they stay supplied with so many rare ingredients.
"When I first created the life realm artifacts, they could only store up to a hundred kilometers squared of space inside", Huoran explained to the leaders, "Over time with research and the expertise of our Sages, we have three main life realms and each can hold up to a thousand kilometers squared: the first houses all our fields and workshops, the second is a collection of secret realms that is used by citizens and visitors, and the third is the same as the second, but is the collection of merfolk secret realms."
"What? Secret realms?", Sectmaster Zhan asked.
Huoran spent the next hour informing everyone of his discoveries about how secret realms are made, how they operate, and what happens in the end.
All the leaders had serious expressions on their face after learning all of this before Elder Shenlong cleared his throat.
"So if what your master taught is correct, the beastkins should have many secret realms in place they place the cores of their ancestors", the tortoise implied.
"Yes, but secret realms restrictions are set in place by the will of the being who created it before they enter the cycle of reincarnation", Huoran explained, "If someone who matches the rules of the realm never appears, it possible the realm with return to the source once the will can no longer keep it together. Of course, another possibility is here now that we have these artifacts."
"Do you sell these artifacts?", Elder Shenlong inquired.
"Yes we do, but we are about to enter the first life realm artifact now", Huoran replied, "I can guide you towards the artifact once the tour is done, so let's talk about it later."
As the flying artifact carrying them passed through the portal, everyone was greeted with a grand view. Contents of the several life realm artifacts that Huoran had made in the past, plus contents of more secret realms he had collected during his travels had fused together.
The passengers could see snow capped mountains, forest, plains, the sea, fields, and buildings as they flew over.
"Over there is where our alchemists and refiners work, down there are where the spirit farmers watch their fields, and in the ocean the merfolk also farm as well", Huoran informed everyone as the flying artifact headed towards the fields.
Soon the flying artifact landed, and everyone disembarked before following after Huoran.
"This is the pillar to everything", he explained to his audience, "With wise and efficient use of our spiritual vein, we can grow everything we need and sell. As many of you know, it's not uncommon for beings of this world to come into conflict over resources I. The pursuit of strength. But not many were willing to take the time to make advancements in spiritual farming, despite the benefits it could bring."
Even the leaders from Nanying continent agreed in their hearts that this was true, cultivation was a paradox. Cultivators wanted to advance in strength, but they also wanted to cultivate others, and these ideals clashed often.
When the group reached the field, everyone was looking at the odd planters the spiritual plants were in.
"What is the nature of the artifacts you are using here?", Chief Razortalon asked.
Huoran once again went into lecture mode as he began describing to them how spiritual veins are formed, how they diminish, they goal of Sun & Moon island to extend the life of their vein, and how these and other artifacts assist in that goal.
The eyes of the leaders from Nanying and Wu were shining once Huoran stopped talking.
"Daoist Wei", Sect master Liang exclaimed, "Are you showing us these artifacts because you will sell these as well?"
"That was my intention", Huoran confirmed, "It's true that I could develop and keep all these things for our own exclusive use. But if I did that, I would be acting in the same manner as everyone else who hides or keeps the best things for themselves."
After the walk through the fields, Huoran took them to the workshops before heading to the next life realm artifact.
"As you can see this is the fusion between maybe twenty secret realms", Huoran recounted the details, "Using the
QR pods is beneficial for many things, but if your as going to cultivate your body, you still have to go out and do something. This gives those who wish to cultivate their body the chance to do so."
Chief Bloodclaw noted, "This is excellent, I actually want to have something like this for my warriors."
"It's possible", Huoran replied, "But you do require a spirit vein to maintain it. It technically can power itself, but this will hasten the deterioration of the secret team."
This caused all the beastkin leaders to think. They had always selected their homes based off locations with plants and beast with high vitality and blood essence. This could cause great conflict between clans and tribes if everyone tried to set up life realm artifacts for their own people. For the first time, spiritual veins would become and important resource on the Shuo continent.
"Before we pledge to purchase these products from you, Friend Wei", Elder Shenlong articulated, "This is a bigger issue than we can deal with right now, so allow us to discuss amongst ourselves first."
"I would never try to force a sale on anyone", Huoran responded, "Take as much time as you need. While you are waiting to decide, the beastkin are always able to visit our life realm in the meantime. For now, let's visit the last realm and finish the tour."