Book 7, Chapter 1: Paradise
The sky above Ten Thousand Swords Mountain was always clear and idyllic.
“Always” was really always. Without Ten Thousand Swords Mountain’s permission, rain would never fall from the sky.
And if Ten Thousand Swords Mountain needed rain, then the sky wouldn’t dare withhold a single drop.
The Boundless Sect’s disciples would directly form clouds in the sky above the mountain as needed and then herd them to the desired peak, upon which a storm would descend.
These disciples were known as Cloud-Herding Disciples.
“Le Qing! Bring those clouds of yours over here for a bit. We need some water in this area!” In the sky, a disciple wearing a white robe while floating on top of three clouds called out to another fellow disciple. From his demeanor, it was obvious that he was at the Light Shaking Realm. However, despite his advanced cultivation, he was still just a common Outer Court disciple.
And he was not the only one.
Off in the distance, floating near another group of clouds, there was another young Boundless Sect disciple. That disciple was holding a long red whip in his hand as he drove the clouds through the sky. As the clouds moved to his whim, they began to disperse torrents of rain without dispersing.
The cultivator responsible for herding the clouds together was a Light Shaking Realm cultivator who had already formed four Lotus Platforms; even so, he held no real position of power in the Boundless Sect.
“Coming!” The cloudherd named Le Qing drove the dozens of clouds under his control towards the other cultivator’s direction, intent on merging them together. Since the timing was right, he barked, “Up!”
All of the clouds simultaneously began to unleash rain.
The rain precisely landed on Ten Thousand Mountain’s peaks. This rain was no ordinary rain either — it was imbued with Origin Energy, and the cloudherds had also infused them with special medicine. Wherever the raindrops landed, they perfectly irrigated the ground, bringing forth abundant vegetation. The unique flowers, herbs, and plants that grew on the side of the mountain were thus nourished and grew bountifully.
Most humans obtained their cultivation resources by seizing them from others, but the Boundless Sect had developed a system that allowed them to farm and procure these resources all on their own. At this point, the preliminary foundations of that system had been fully developed, allowing the Boundless Sect to continue expanding.
“The rainfall has lasted for three counts. Stop the rain!” Le Qing called out while precisely measuring how much rain had fallen. With a wave of his hand, the clouds evaporated away as they slowly disappeared.
“What a pity,” sighed the other disciple, whose name was Jin Fan.
“What’s there to pity?” Le Qing asked quizzically.
“The medicine in the clouds. They always disappear before we can completely use them up,” Jin Fan replied.
Le Qing laughed. “They are of this world in the first place. They will re-form and return soon.”
“Maybe not. The continent is very large, and it wouldn’t be surprising if more than half of this special rain fell somewhere else,” Jin Fan replied ruefully.
Le Qing chuckled. “So what? Are you going to be this selfish over just a little bit of medicine?”
Jin Fan rubbed his head. “I come from a poor family, where even steamed buns needed to be carefully split before we could eat them. I really cannot stand letting anything go to waste. If we waste some today and some more tomorrow, then eventually we’ll have wasted quite a large amount.”
“That’s true, but there’s also nothing we can do about it. Ten Thousand Swords Mountain is not isolated from the rest of the world,” Le Qing replied, “The only possible solution would be to create an isolated void, place the entire mountain range inside, and only allow Origin Energy to enter, not exit.”
Jin Fan’s eyes glittered when he heard this. “Is that possible?”
Le Qing shook his head. “No. That would be far too difficult to do. Carving out another cave or constructing another palace would be just as hard as forming an entirely new realm. Even Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators are incapable of doing so.”
Jin Fan had the utmost faith in their Sect Master. “So would Sect Master be able to do it?”
“Sect Master?” Le Qing wanted to say that even their Sect Master would have a hard time doing so. To accomplish such a feat, their comprehension of just spatial Method Power needed to be extremely deep. Thus, such an idea was at most wishful thinking. However, his high respect for Su Chen made it so that he didn’t dare say such a blasphemous thought out loud.
Suddenly, at that moment, a giant booming sound suddenly burst forth.
The two of them turned around in shock, only to find that a giant hole had mysteriously appeared in the sky above them.
The hole was pitch black, and it was impossible to see inside it. It was as if a giant creature had opened its gaping maw — that was how sinister the darkness was.
Despite its already large size, this hole rapidly expanded, as if it were trying to devour the entire world. Soon enough, it completely encapsulated Ten Thousand Swords Mountain.
This scared the two disciples quite badly.
What was going on?
Had some terrifying demon torn down the barriers between realms and invaded their realm?
In that moment, countless possibilities flitted through their imagination.
Obviously, they were not the main characters of this story, because the “demon’s” first move was to straight up devour the entire world around them. Even these two innocent cloudherds were not spared.
“AH!!!”
The two of them cried out in despair, but it was useless. They felt the world around them spin wildly as a wave of dizziness overcame them.
But no matter how dizzy they became, death did not come for them. They tumbled through the air countless times before finally coming to a stop. Only then did they realize that they were actually completely unharmed, as even their Origin Energy was still revolving normally. It was as if nothing scary had happened at all.
As they slowly recovered from their shocked state, they found that the familiar, ever present mountains and rivers were still around them. Past them, however, everything was blurry.
Le Qing and Jin Fan attempted to force open the barrier. It felt soft to the touch, but was obviously extremely sturdy. Even when they used all their power, they were unable to tear it open. The two of them even attempted to use their Origin Tools to cut a way out, but no matter how hard they attacked, not even a scratch was left on its surface.
“It’s over! We’re going to be imprisoned here forever!”
Le Qing and Jin Fan felt a sense of despair surface in their hearts.
“Hey, are you two alright?” a voice suddenly spoke up from behind them.
The two of them turned around in surprise to see Su Chen laughing at them.
“Sect Master!” the two of them cried out happily.
“Sect Master, why are you here? Could it be……” Jin Fan said before suddenly realizing something and clamming up.
“What? Did you think that some kind of foreign demon was attacking us?” Su Chen chuckled.
The two of them lowered their heads in embarrassment.
They had finally begun to realize what had actually happened.
Le Qian sensed his surroundings, immediately discovering that the Origin Energy in this region was incredibly dense. It was actually flowing regularly and was not stagnant. In other words, this realm was still connected to the outside world, though it was impossible to know that from their location.
“A tunnel leading to another world……” Le Qing muttered in slight disbelief. “Sect Master, you actually did it! You opened up an isolated void! Is this so that you can better store some of the precious ancient medicines?”
Su Chen chuckled. “You must be quite smart to have guessed it right away.”
He didn’t know about their earlier conversation. Actually, it was only natural that they were able to immediately guess what had happened.
Le Qing’s choice of words, however, gave him pause. After muttering to himself for a brief moment, he nodded and said, “The name ‘isolated void’ does sound a bit bland. What you said inspired me. Why don’t we call this place Paradise Genesis?”
“Paradise Genesis!” The two of them simultaneously grew excited. “That’s a good name!”
Su Chen faintly said, “This is the Boundless Sect’s first Paradise, so I have thus named it Genesis. But it will not be the last. Cultivate well. Perhaps in the future, you will each have your own little Paradise. Even though it may be smaller than this one, it will be more than suitable for you to settle down in.”
“Really?” The two of them were delighted by this prospect. “Is it really possible for every disciple to have one?”
“Not right now, but in the future…… Well, who’s to say what’s possible?” After Su Chen finished speaking, he waved his sleeves, bringing the two of them out of Paradise Genesis.
Upon returning to the main world, the two of them saw that the giant dark void in the sky had disappeared, as well as a large chunk of Ten Thousand Swords Mountain and the surrounding peaks.
It was as if someone had just sliced away a giant section of the mountain, making Ten Thousand Swords Mountain more akin to Hundred Swords Mountain.
Even so, this obviously didn’t bother the Boundless Sect’s disciples at all.
Off in the distance, even more Boundless Sect disciples could be seen slowly flying over, dragging more mountains behind them.
They were moving mountains now!
After herding the clouds around, the Boundless Sect now did the same with their mountains. Obviously, they were planning on moving all of the nearby mountains over to fill in the gap that had been created.
Even though this was quite the majestic demonstration, it was not so much destruction as remodeling of the nearby terrain. Even Ultimate Emperor Realm cultivators would have a hard time performing such a task.
But the Boundless Sect had managed to make it a reality.
This was because the Boundless Sect’s core cultivators were no longer at the Light Shaking Realm, but rather the Spirit Burning Realm.
Any one of these cultivators would be worthy of leading a small clan or being a general in the imperial army, but here, they were merely a part of the sect’s core strength. Truly, the Boundless Sect’s might was staggering.
When tens of thousands of these Spirit Burning Realm cultivators combined their power, moving mountains was no longer an insurmountable task.
The peaks were steadily transplanted to Ten Thousand Swords Mountain, then resculped and rearranged.
And in the still-hidden void, a paradise belonging solely to the Boundless Sect waited.
From this day onwards, the Boundless Sect’s resource-generating area would be located in an even safer environment. At the same time, it was even better nourished than before, as the Origin Energy concentration was even denser, allowing the plants and herbs there to grow and flourish.
Paradise Genesis’s creation, truth be told, was a monumental event, but it was merely a small milestone in Su Chen’s grand plan.
After taking care of this matter, Su Chen quickly left.
As Jin Fan watched Su Chen leave, he couldn’t resist asking, “Brother Le, do you think that the Sect Master will someday really be able to make a Paradise for each one of us?”
“Who knows,” Le Qing casually replied, “Creating a Paradise involves spatial Method Power, and at our cultivation base it should be impossible. But……”
“But with the Sect Master here, it might really not be impossible,” Jin Fan said hopefully.
“You have a lot of faith in him.”
“Of course. Think about it — in the past, the words ‘Light Shaking’ were esteemed and held in high regard. If you reached the Light Shaking Realm, then you were strong enough to rule over an entire city. But now? Any random cultivator from the street could be a Light Shaking Realm cultivator. And before, it would take at least thirty to forty years of bitter cultivation to reach this point, and a bloodline was absolutely necessary to do so. But now with the Flying Immortal Cultivation Techniques, it only takes around ten years to reach that same level. Long ago, the Light Shaking Realm was even considered to be the absolute limit achievable by the human race, but that limit was eventually raised to the Ultimate Emperor Realm. If the Light Shaking Realm is this easy to reach right now, who can say if the same will eventually happen to the Ultimate Emperor Realm?”
Le Qing was stunned. “You’re saying……”
Jin Fan continued expounding on his views. “The Sect Master did say that not every Paradise would be as big as Paradise Genesis. Perhaps we will not need that profound a comprehension of spatial Method Power to establish small ones? Maybe a superficial understanding will be enough, or perhaps the Sect Master will provide us with a special cultivation technique that he developed based on his understanding of spatial Method Power. We might not even need to be at the Ultimate Emperor Realm by that point……”
When Le Qing heard Jin Fan’s conjectures, he was stunned.
If the ascension process truly became easier, and those seemingly profound methods became much more well-understood and documented, then what their Sect Master had said might not be impossible after all.
But more importantly, their Sect Master was Su Chen.
The Su Chen who was more than familiar with performing miracles!
Something that was considered rare today might not even be rare tomorrow.
The only difference was that, in the past, Su Chen had always been putting other people out of work; now, he was doing it to himself as well.