Several seasons passed as Wei Huoran prepared to breakthrough to the Celestial Dao realm. With the exception of 'his master', no other being had ever reached this realm. It was said that the laws of the world were affected by the him, and everyone who attempted either burned themselves out trying to breakthrough, or lived the rest of their life at the late Void Refinement realm acting as the emperor of their own land.
Core batteries were no longer enough for Wei Huoran to absorb to push him over the 'bottleneck' that stopped everyone else. As someone who never suffered from bottlenecks, he still decided to play it safe. He sent special drones to find every secret realm that was not claimed by any force, absorbed them into life realm artifacts, and collected them. Huoran would remove all valuable resources that could be used before reducing what was left into Qi. When he was finished, he arrived at Twin Dragon island with eighty one life realms full. He went to the altars that were already present as his place to breakthrough to send a message to the ancient beasts of the northern continent. Once there, he set up a formation using the life realms, and sent a message back to Zeng Meirong first, and the Ministry second. His first message just told her what he expected to happen, and what he would do if anything happened to him. The second message to the ministers was just letting them know that he expected to disappear for some time possibly, and his instructions when that happened.
With everything ready, Huoran sat in the middle of the formation, and commenced his cultivation. Qi flowed from all the realm artifacts according to the formation Huoran had constructed, and he felt his level rise. He continued to absorb at a constant rate of speed as his inner world refined the incoming energy and expanded. He had calculated that it would take nine days before he reached the limit, and as expected on the ninth day, he felt his dantian, inner world, and mind felt they were almost full. Huoran paid special attention as he continued to drain the life realms of their energy, anticipating if anything strange would happen at the limit.
Just as he reached the moment he was trying to carefully reach, Huoran broke through. Just as with his last breakthrough, large, dark clouds formed and expanded out. Unlike the last time, the clouds kept expanding past the nine hundred and ninety nine kilometer mark. Not only that, but everywhere underneath the clouds suffered as an oppressive aura could be felt. Twin Dragon city had to activate it protection formation just to keep its citizens from suffering from the effects. As the pressure spread out, the ocean was also pushed back, and multiple tornadoes touchdown.
On the southern continent, all the beings, both human and beast, were either trying to either escape or survive under whatever shelter they could find. On the northern continent, the most powerful forces came together to protect themselves and their young. To the surprise of the ministry, the clouds eventually reached them as well, and the three continents took their measures to protect themselves. The planet looked odd now as all the oceans had been pushed into the highest point of the sky, and returning as rain.
Everyone suddenly felt a power stronger than any they had experienced before as huge continent long bolts of lightning appeared from different places. Each bolt streaked through the clouds as it sprinted from its origin towards Wei Huoran. It did not take before the first one arrived at his position, and struck. Lightning as thick as centuries old redwood trees rushed at Huoran, but disappeared just like his last breakthrough. Huoran could feel his mind, body, and dantian being refined by the lightning before the rest of it was taken into his inner world. Bolt after bolt of increasing intensity fell on him after that until the eighty first was launched. But what Huoran felt next caused him to panic.
As Huoran's new divine sense stretched out to understand the changes caused by his breakthrough, Quanliyuan spoke up.
'Well, this realm is in trouble', the artifact spirit stated.
"Why?", Huoran replied out loud, "Why does it feel like this world can no longer hold itself together?"
'Because it cannot', Quanliyuan remarked, 'But this is not a real world in the first place.'
"Yeah, I guess it is not", Huoran frowned as he saw lava spreading out of the ocean floor and rain falling. Earthquakes and tornadoes could be felt and seen before Huoran made his next statement.
"This whole time we have been in the inner world of my 'master'", Huoran said.
'If you continue to stay here, this world will fall apart now that broke the law of the realm', Quanliyuan told him.
"Ok", Huoran replied before taking out his QFold and sending a message.
Huoran looked at the sky, and soared higher and higher until he reached the point that had stopped his satellites from ascending. He only stopped for a moment before rushing at the barrier, and disappeared from sight. Once he left, the earthquakes stopped, the rain poured even harder, and the clouds and tornadoes disappeared as well.
Meirong looked at her phone as she heard the tone that she had received a message from Huoran. She read everything before being shocked and reading the message a second time. She sent a message to the ministers before getting into her car and driving to the Sun City city office.
As Meirong entered the meeting, she was greeted by all the ministers of the island.
"Good day ministers, I have come for two reasons", she said, "The first is simple, my husband successfully completed his breakthrough."
The ministers all immediately offered their congratulations and bowed Meirong.
"The second thing I have to say is that Huoran has left this world", she added.
"Daoist Zeng, what do you mean", Minister Ye said in shock.
"It would be easier if he explained it himself", Meirong explained as she put her Qphone on the table.
She made a few mental commands, and a holographic projection of Huoran appeared.
"I do not have much time, so I need to confess a few things ", the image of Huoran said first, "We do not live in a normal world, but the inner world of a Celestial Dao realm cultivator. It is essential a secret realm create by a top level cultivator, but he is dead. When I first arrived on the island those many years ago, I found his bones and gave him a proper burial. That is to say, I have never had a master, I just found his knowledge and acted as such to keep the enemies of the island at bay. By now the realm should have calmed down, and start returning to normal now that I have exited the realm. The reason everything went crazy was because the realm had a restriction that does not allow beings of the same level as himself to enter, but my body is special and can ignore restrictions and formations for some reason. Once I'm outside the realm I will place it in my own inner space and gain control over it, and I have some proposals to make. Once I have control over the realm I will send my avatar to make these propositions so just continue on as usual until you hear from me. This should not be secret information, so do with this as you will."
Minister Zel was the first to speak, "This is a lot to take in."
"I do not believe it changes anything though", Minister Song replied, "If anything, Master Huoran just became the master of the realm so it is as we expect led in the first place."
More ministers joined the conversation, but Meirong no longer wished to be part of the conversation.
"Ministers", she bowed before heading to the exit, "I will leave now so you can decide how to proceed, I will wait for my husband to return."
They returned her bow, and she left as she returned home. She had mixed feelings as she was both proud that Huoran was able to breakthrough the limit of this realm, but still somewhat sad that he did not share his thoughts with her. She spent the rest of the evening home contemplating what she would say when he returned.
Meanwhile, in an unknown cavern, Wei Huoran appeared in the darkness. As he sensed his surroundings, he let out his aura causing everything living to escape at the fastest speed. His senses felt the air was different than what he felt inside the realm, and he realized it was because this was an origin world. The realm he had been born in only had the elements and laws that the original cultivator that created it understood. But this world had everything, and it caused him to realize what he had been lacking. But he remembered the state the realm was in when he left so he turned around and found the secret realm. With a smooth motion, he took control of the realm and began to absorb it into his inner world. He was afraid of killing everyone so when he inserted the secret realm into his inner world, he made sure only to control it and not absorb it before taking a look to see what state the realm was in.
Huoran quickly stabilized the realm, directing the rain to fall to fill the oceans and seas again, quieting the earthquakes, stopping the tornadoes, and cooling the lava that had come out. He had a plan, but he wanted the people of the realm to make their own decisions, so he took some materials and create a formation around himself to keep himself hidden and protected while he put his plan into action.
Once he was ready, Huoran created an avatar at the highest level allowed by the realm and appeared at his home.
"It's about you came home", he heard as he saw his house.
"My apologies, my dear", he smiled, "The plan was successful meaning I was able to breakthrough, but did not go as expected when I almost caused the realm to tear apart."
Zeng Meirong embraced him, "I'm glad that you were able to return."
"I would never abandon you", Huoran reassured her, "Let's go meet with everyone first, and then I'll bring you with me. "
Soon Huoran stood in front of ministers, who looked relieved that he had returned.
"You had us worried, Boss Wei", Minister Wu said as Huoran entered the room.
"My apologies, everyone", Huoran told the group, "Even though I had some suspicions about the nature of this realm, I did not have evidence so I stayed quiet. Anyways, once I leave again, I will bring Meirong with me."
"You can transport people out of the realm?", Minister Xia said with a look of awe on his face.
"I have control over the whole realm, whoever enters or exits is up to me", Huoran explained, "The world out there feels different than here, and I'm worried about how our suddenly arrival will gain the attention of the residents of that world. I will go find a place and slowly transfer the continents to that world. If people wish to explore, they can, if they wish to stay in this world until its collapse, they can do that too."
"That sounds excellent, Daoist Wei", Minister Zel patted his avatar on the shoulder, "We will spread the word while you look for the perfect place."
"No time like the present then", Huoran responded, "I will go ahead to get things ready, I'll leave for now and contact you when things are ready."
Huoran disconnected from the room and looked at Meirong, "Are you ready?"
"Yes", she answered.
"Close your eyes", Huoran said, and when he saw her comply, he opened a portal and led her through.
When she opened her eyes, Meirong noticed she was in the dark inside a protective formation.
Huoran opened his eyes, and summoned a drone who illuminated the space. Next he summoned the flying ship the two could use to stealthily investigate this new world.
"The Qi in this world is really weird like you said", Meirong commented as they entered the ship.
"Let us find out what else is weird before we settle down", Huoran said as several drones had mapped out the cavern they were in. She nodded in agreement as he commanded the ship to move.