"This place feels so small..." Kalima whispered as they arrived at the Celestial restaurant in the Cloud Province.
"What you feel now is your advanced cultivation realm making bending the Laws much easier. But the Lower Realms are easily a thousand times the size of the Upper Realms." the glove explained patiently.
Traversing the Upper Realms took her days, because the Laws were more solid, reinforcing reality in ways that were impossible here in the Lower Realm. But that also made cultivators that ascended from the lower realms that much stronger when reaching the Upper Realm, from struggling so hard to attain their cultivation with much lower qi densities and resources, thus fortifying their willpower and hearts to degrees rarely seen above.
. And vice-versa as well, when Upper realms cultivators descended into a lower realm, they could enforce their will much too easy in a realm where Laws were much weaker.
Taking a single step, the glove goddess bypassed the Formations protecting the Sword Monument and arrived beside Master Jin.
"Stop staring at the sword like it can show you the Way. Pef made it before he attained his Sword Soul anyways." she admonished the ancient swordmaster.
The man frowned and glared at the glove goddess for a second, then nodded. "We've met, but I don't remember you my lady." he spoke in a cautious voice.
She simply grabbed his collar and returned inside the restaurant, where Kalima was greeting a few of the remaining staff, including Zae, Zara's cooking shadow clone.
Pef's 'fake' wife was now managing the restaurant, although her supplies of Celestial burgers were limited and were only offered once a month.
"Sit down, Master Jin. Kalima, you go find your kids and such. We only leave tomorrow." she demanded in a curt tone.
Ignoring her tone, Kalima simply waved her fingers in greetings and walked away.
The sounds of the restaurant vanished as the glove blocked the table with a dimensional array. "I offer you a Sword Soul, Master Jin." she began in a mild voice.
"...Are you in the Iron Realm, my lady?" the man asked in a polite voice.
"Do I look like a lousy Iron Realm to you, idiot? Kalima is at that realm now. And Pef too. And after you drink this, even you." she muttered a bit angrily, and placed a small wine cup on the table.
"Oh!" the man answered in surprise, then just nodded and drank the wine.
Unlike Kalima though, he was at the peak of the 10th Tier, so he Ascended into the 3rd Star of 11th Tier after ingesting the Ascension Wine.
The glove goddess poked his forehead a few times to wake him up from revelry. "Now you are too in the Iron Realm. What is my cultivation?"
Master Jin focused like a sword and measured her for a minute. "Steel Realm?"
"Say that with a bit more confidence. Now, you fought in the Tree Wars right? Ever fought someone in the Jade House?" the glove goddess asked with no ulterior reasons.
Master Jin nodded cautiously. "Jade, Phoenix and Dragons, even a Kirin and a Tao Sealer. I couldn't defeat the Tao Sealer though." he recounted with a slight shiver.
The glove glanced at his Eternium necklace which likely kept him safe from the Tao Seal. It was hard to say if a Tao Seal was stronger than a Heart Mirror, but they were certainly comparable artifacts. The user likely made more an impact on the result than the artifact itself.
"So, are you willing to fight beside Pef against the Jade House?" she asked in a curious voice.
Master Jin tapped his empty wine cup. "A Noble House has billions of cultivators in their army. And probably dozens of Iron Realm Elders, maybe even a Steel Eminence."
"Exactly. The Veritas Legion needs a decent enemy to train our Soldiers on, and our Captains will deal with the Elders. And there's someone stronger, we'll have you and Pef to match that." she continued with a careless voice.
"...And I get my Immortal Sword Soul from this?" Master Jin asked in a low voice.
The glove just nodded. Truth be told, Master Jin had already reached that stage, but imbued his Soul into the Sword, creating a sentient artifact instead.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
"Then I am ready." the old swordsman answered with a firm nod.
The glove goddess smiled and opened a Blue portal to the Seven Colored Pagoda, and simply invited the man inside.
Dealing with the Immortal Bamboo Tree will not be as easy.
Sleeping under the tree, a badger-sized Taotie opened a lazy eye as he sensed the portal opening, then jumped to his feet like a wary cat. "YOU! HAVE YOU COME TO TORMENT ME AGAIN?"
The Silent Monk kicked the Taotie with a sad face, making the beast shut up and place a paw over his mouth.
"Greetings you three. This is Master Jin, a famous swordsman from the Tree Wars. He will depart soon to aid Pef to battle the Noble Jade House. Beside him, the Legion will send a billion Soldiers, using this place as a transport vessel." she explained in a gentle voice.
The immortal tree made its leaves flutter and rustle, and the Silent Monk noddded, then glanced at her right hand.
Answering the tree directly, she knelt at its base and simply poured a cup of Ascension Wine at its roots.
The Bamboo Tree shot up in height and width, sheltering the Blue Realm of the pagoda with its towering, almost singing leaves.
Then a small seed fell from the tree and rolled beside her Eternium armored glove.
The glove picked it up and examined the seed for a minute. Such a modest disguise for a Soul Seed able to sprout into any kind of Dao Seed.
She tapped the tree trunk twice, and two more seeds fell next to her hand.
An expensive barter, but then again, this was a fallen Tier 13 cultivator, even if now it was broken into small branches and shattered Daos.
"Eat the Seed and meditate here for a while, Master Jin." She demanded with a curt voice, before turning to the Taotie and flicking a Seed into his waiting maw.
As expected, the Taotie Devoured the Seed without thinking too much, perhaps considering it a nice treat. Which it was, but not in the way he suspected. Pef was not a beast after all, and thus reaching 100% in Devouring Dao would be quite difficult.
Unless a silly Taotie was willing to donate his Devouring Dao by infusing a Dao Seed.
And next, Lady Lia and her Tao Seal could use a Seed to become a true Sealer. There was a good reason why Sealers were so respected and powerful in the past, and then hunted to extinction during the Tree Wars.
Unlimited lives, coupled with the ability to seal someone's mind and drain it for knowledge.
Similar to the Devouring of the Taotie, but available to any cultivator. Sadly, much like any ability based on the cycle of reincarnation, the Seal would stop working at Tier 13, but even so it would be valuable.
The glove waited a few hours until the Taotie was a bit drained, then plunged her armored glove into his stomach and retrieved the Devouring Seed before the Taotie even woke up.
"What now?" the beast grumbled as his flesh and meridians regrew near-instantly.
She sighed and poured a bit of wine into his mouth, just enough to send him into the Iron Realm.
Luckily, the tribulation cost was already paid this time, or else thousands of lightning bolts would have ruined the peace of this place.
"I've ascended? But my Devouring is a bit weaker...strange. No matter, there will be plenty of enemies to Devour in the Upper Realms." the Taotie observed with a thoughtful, yet mild voice.
"Don't misbehave unless so ordered, stupid monster. We'll need to disguise you with an armor suit though." the glove mused in a low voice, making the Silent Monk nod in agreement.
She walked in front of the old monk, and placed her glove on his shoulder. "It will take a decade or so, until we have our own place in the world above. Real estate is expensive up there, and it may take a billion lives to purchase a place for the Legion. But after that, our trees may grow freely."
The Silent Monk gazed at her with wise eyes, and patted her glove.
She nodded in turn. The Tree Wars continued.