Feng Wen landed like an arrow shot from a bow. He hit the ground on two feet and one fist, kneeling before me. I tilted my head back, hands behind my back, and reached out for my skill. It was like plucking a zither’s string; it came to me without effort, an easy action as simple as the pluck of a finger.

A bit of dread that had haunted me since I saw Stef being pulled through with me dissipated.

[Wen of the North Wind, Darkwind Scion Path Cultivator, ??? Realm Cultivator]

I flinched.

That dread was back.

I realized I didn’t know Wen. And yet he was my closest advisor. Wen knew me; yet he hid a bevy of secrets so deep I could drown in them.

My stare didn’t leave him as I evaluated him, my hands folded before me.

“Young Master Feng!” Wen said, crossing the distance between us in a heart beat. He pulled my hand — the one I had used to integrate with the system — and inspected it.

The guard I had accidentally dragged with me between worlds — Stef — flinched at Wen’s speed.

I pulled my arm from his grasp gently. He was a higher realm than me. But I suspected there was even more to it than that.

Feng Fang ran at full speed, still far behind Wen. I cast [Identify] across the town square.

[Feng Fang, Qi Condensation Realm Cultivator]

I could see Fang’s cultivation, but not Wen’s.

“Stef…” I said, turning to the guard. “How far beyond someone in levels do you have to be before identify stops working?”

“Fifty levels, of course.” Stef said. He opened his mouth to continue, but I made him pause by raising a hand. He had a tendency to be long winded.

Was fifty levels the equivalent of two large realms? It was possible.

“You… what language was that, young master?” Wen asked. He looked puzzled. Fang stared at me in horror.

“The only language I speak.” I said, frowning.

“That wasn’t any language I’ve ever heard you speak.” Fang said. He looked Stef up and down. “You don’t seem like you came from the desert.”

“I’m afraid I dragged him from very far away.” I turned and looked at Stef. He wasn’t speaking the same language as the rest of them? Was the System translating? I had thought that I was within an illusory formation; I had never once questioned the language.

Though the system had worked fine for me, I had also spent time in the woods before meeting anyone. Perhaps Stef’s System would begin translating later.

“How has everything been in my absence?” I scratched my face. I was growing stubble. Wen’s eyes locked onto that.

“Young Master… may I ask how long it’s been from your perspective?”

“I’ve been away three days.” I said, raising an eyebrow. The cold night air hung heavy over all of us.

There was dead silence.

Fang and Wen looked between each other.

“It’s only been three hours!” Fang said.

I glanced at Stef. He was all the proof I needed that the place I had been was a real world.

“It’s been three days from my perspective.” I said. “Gather the city council. Activate the privacy formation around the chamber.”

“Yes, Young Master.” Wen said. The air shifted, curling and whispering as it bent around Wen. His qi asserted itself on the world, shifting the air itself to enable his movement technique. I could see it now; it had been a struggle to grasp it before.

“Wait.” I said.

“Yes?” Wen paused.

“Are the… estates… you wanted us to create operational?”

Wen’s eyes jumped between me and Stef.

“Are you guys talking? What is this?” Stef asked.

“The prisons that you insisted be built as palaces. Yes. They are. Though the security is rather… lack luster.”

“Fang, can you take Stef here to them?” I asked. Fang nodded, and I put a hand on Stef’s shoulder.

“Stef, you’ll be going with Fang here. We have some temporary housing you can use while we work on… finding you a job. And we can get you back to your continent… eventually.”

My eyes flicked to the prompt that was hovering in my vision. I didn’t want to dismiss it yet.

[World Gate Recharging. Time Until Ready: 30 days]

It would take an hour to drag the old elders of the city out of their beds and into our center chamber.

Sandgrave had the youngest city council of any city — many of the administrators had been promoted from the mortal colleges we built here. In spite of that, many old administrators worked their way into the city.

Everyone was awake — Sandgrave was a city that moved in the night. The oppressive heat of the day time was pushing us towards building infrastructure buried in the ground.

Sand piled to the edge of the city’s walls — a feature which held back the sand, and not roaming monsters.

Sandgrave had flourished in the years after discovering the ruin buried beneath. Whether it was what the people of Stef’s world called a precursor ruin or not was up for debate.

Perhaps the precursors of their world were the same old cultivator elders who had built the legacies here. It wasn’t unheard of for those in the Seventh Realm to walk the Way Between Worlds.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Regardless, the extraction operation of the spirit-stone spreading out from under the desert city and the emerging quarries that we had constructed in the desert provided additional funding; I used that to fund grants for the mortal colleges, collecting them all here in the heart of the desert.

No other cultivator fully believed in the extent of mortal knowledge. Already, our cities moved far past the knowledge of the cultivators that ruled them.

I extracted their great thinkers like gems from the earth, placing them one by one into positions of power in Sandgrave.

Eschewing tradition, I served no food or alcohol. The severity of the event was communicated through the bleak quiet that dominated the room. The town’s meeting hall was opened to the starry sky above, only the powered formation around it separating the formation from the world around it. Sand and sound were trapped without.

The chamber was seated according to rank — my seat far above the mortals below. It was a tradition I hoped to eschew, but my mortal retainers themselves opposed it. The strict regimens of rank so built into a society were not easy to unshackle.

When all sat, I finally spoke. I knew this would be hard.

“We must cut off access to the ruin below —

The room erupted in noise — shouts of alarm, surprise, and objections. This was the only place in the whole of the Feng Dynasty’s empire where mortals spoke so brozenly to a retainer of the Feng family. Even my outer cousins would see mortals executed for these words.

I raised a hand.

“Without the presence of a cultivator.”

The room grew quieter.

“Young Master Feng, apologies for my rudeness.” One of the youngest scholars in the room stood and bowed. I scanned her from top to bottom.

[Feng Yan Shi, Level 0, Mortal]

She wore the green robes of the geologist school that helped uncover this ruin.

“Be at ease. Speak.” I said.

Yan Shi wore a concerned look on her face.

“Our work on the ruin is incomplete, and our work there is never ending — requiring a cultivator will slow our work. Our scholars are well aware of the risks of exploring ancient ruins and are trained to recognize and avoid the most obvious formations. We have explored many legacies across the continent over the years. I think that a total ban is unnecessary.”

“I understand.” I said, pausing. “I’ll send for more retainers from the guard to instead assist you in your efforts.”

“Young Master Feng…” Another scholar said, standing. “If you pull from the guard, will we be prepared for any spirit beast hordes?”

“Sandgrave has never experienced a spirit-beast horde in the years since its foundation.” Yan Shi said.

I sighed. The land around Sandgrave for miles was completely dead — there was no opportunity for any spirit-beast to come to power in it. The ambient qi above the city seemed to simply disappear as it approached the ruins, though we still weren’t sure of the reason.

I now suspected that the ruin — and potentially the spirit veins themselves — were actually parts of a formation of unimaginable scale. One great enough to open the Way Between Worlds — a feat accomplishment only by great and ancient cultivators, like the Matriarch’s of the Grim Tempest themselves.

The heads of the schools raised an issue, and I squashed it. This repeated for over an hour. I assigned additional guards to patrol the Precursor Ruin buried beneath the city and ordered them to accelerate checking every room, ensuring that nothing like the legacy I had been imprinted with remained.

The thought itched at me. Behind the meaning, I thought about the labyrinth presented in the other world.

That one had been full of obvious tests of character, ensuring the inheritor of the legacy ascribed to their beliefs. This one in the desert seemed devoid of traps and formations — but that wasn’t true. The only reason I had found this legacy at all is because I listened to mortals and looked beyond the pursuit of power.

And in doing so, the System within had the potential to give far more power than I ever sought. What would happen if someone on the same level as the Patriarch — a Fifth Realm cultivator — also reached level three hundred? I don’t think they would be double as powerful as a Fifth Realm cultivator. I think they would be three times as powerful — or more.

What would happen if every mortal in Sandgrave gained access to the system?

I froze when the thought crossed my mind. Would it even be a bad thing? To close the bridge between mortals and cultivators with nothing more than a little effort?

It was a thought for tomorrow. Today, the sun was rising over Sandgrave. The council meeting dispersed, heading out to their individual houses, and I retreated into the palace that had been constructed in my name. Long ago, I waved away my indulgence in excess, but the palace was a sign of my rank and of the wealth that Sandgrave had accumulated.

The outside of the palace was the color of sand, the texture worn by wind and sandstorms. The door swung open to a room of white and blue tiles lit by qi-fueled lamps. The Feng retainer guards at the door saluted me as I passed through the first room, discarding my shoes and stepping onto the warm hardwood floor with a groan.

The wood was collected from fire-qi aligned elemental trees. Their very nature constantly recycled the ambient qi into a small warmth. I untied my hair, letting it flow free behind my back as I trudged through the massive foyer for welcoming guests. One of my butlers saluted me.

“Shall I pour tea, Young Master?”

“Not tonight.” I replied. “I’m heading to bed.”

“Your bath has been prepared. Should I drain it?”

I stopped, staring over at the attendant. The memory of Anna begging for hot water flickered in my mind. I hoped they were safe at Spearpoint. But I had only been gone three hours.

Had it been two days now, in that world?

It was almost enough to question if it was real. Crossing worlds was one thing — manipulating the flow of time was another.

Tonight, I indulged in the water, sinking into a bath almost too hot to tolerate.

It was the size of a pool. Incense filled the room with the scent of flowers. And as I reclined into the water, I did something I had been putting off for hours.

“System.” I said, whispering to myself.

[Congrats on surviving your first Raid, enemy of worlds!]

[Gains: 120 Comprehension points]

[Ludus Arbor Subversion: 100%]

[Total Routes Opened: 1]

[Open additional routes to gain progress towards Felling]

[Ordained Fate of the Savage Expanse by the Divines of the Ludus Arbor has been unmoored. Warning: The Divines may become aware of Anti-Light activity if Fate is moved too far off balance.]

[Major Imbalance in Fate detected: House of Vascara, side family of a multi-world dynasty, is destined to collapse.]

[Poppy Vascara, Herald of the New Dawn has changed titles. Poppy Vascara, The Void Shattering Fist, is now destined to end the nation of Illyria.]

[Warning: Your cultivation path is incompatible with your spirit root. Reaching the Second Realm with your cultivation path will permanently hamper your foundation.]

[View recommended action now?]

The barrage of information finally paused. The system still hadn’t opened my own status — the only part I was looking for. Was Poppy okay? The system was talking rapidly, barraging me with information.

It called me an enemy of worlds. It told me the direction of Poppy’s future. And it told me that the gods themselves were likely to become aware of me. I groaned and slipped farther into the bath.

I wanted to ask Wen, but I wasn’t sure that I should. He had confided much in me over the years; but he had not confided that he was an agent of the Grim Tempest.

“View recommended action.”

[Recommended action: Spend comprehension points in the DAO system shop.]

[Recommended items highlighted.]

A barrage of system prompts appeared before me, many of them ludicrous, but they dismissed themselves just as quickly, leaving just a handful remaining.

[Spirit Root Alteration Token: 1000 Comprehension Points][Recommended]

[This item can change the cultivation roots of the user or a target within touch range, changing their base elemental affinity.]

That wasn’t happening. I only received 120 Comprehension points — it seemed like I gained ten for every level, for now.

Besides that, I didn’t trust this thing at all to manipulate my spirit-roots. Changing someones spirit-root sounded outright impossible. My eyes fell to the next option.

[Cultivation Technique Token: 50 Comprehension Points][Recommended]

[This item will reveal a cultivation technique compatible with the user. Can be used on self or a target at touch range.]

I had spent years mastering the Feng Family’s — the Grim Tempest’s cultivation technique. I would have to spend years again to approach the same mastery with a new cultivation technique. Not to mention that the grade of a technique could be different — this system didn’t mention anything about what grade of cultivation technique it would create.

[Cultivation Technique Alteration Token: 100 Comprehension Points][Recommended]

[This item will alter a cultivation technique to make it compatible with the user’s element. This item will convert Three Major Realms of understanding. Additional tokens will be necessary for further progression.]