Heavenly tribulation of that magnitude would attract a lot of attention, so Ed and Tie Nse moved away. Tie Nse took Ed to another immortal cave tens of thousands of kilometres from their last location. A while after they left, several masters of the spirit merging stage appeared. Looking at the state of the mountain, their eyes shrunk. What kind of person was defying the heavens here?
In another immortal cave, Ed and Tie Nse sat as Ed took a better look at his state. Tie Nse waited for him to return from his sea of consciousness before asking,
“How do you feel?”
“The heavenly tribulation helped to steady my advancement. My energies have merged into one, but I can still absorb them differently,” he answered and Tie Nse nodded.
“I intend for you to go to the demon Lands,”
“Where is that?” Ed asked with a frown and Tie Nse sighed.
“You should trust me a little more. This will not be like sending you to the Baju Valley,”
“How will it be then?” Ed's frown never left his face. This old pervert had sent him to an execution ground while still at the foundation level, yet he expected to be trusted?
“It will be worse,” Tie Nse said and Ed's eyes turned cold.
“The demon Lands is called the unholy ground. All who walk there will lose their cultivation. Now, for those who have reached the soul realization stage like myself, it will not matter. At the soul realisation stage, our cultivations are not seated in our bodies, but in our souls. We can walk freely even with such restrictions,”
“Doesn't that mean that everyone will be just as powerless? Why is it more dangerous for me?”
“You see, the Baju Valley was mostly a training ground for your energies, but the demon Land is a training ground for your body. Boy, at your level, anyone at the same cultivation level could kill you,” Tie Nse said carelessly, then paused, "Ignore those old things you fought back in that valley, when you see the world, you will know that just because someone is of spirit awareness does not mean they are all made the same. if you could not at least beat those mediocre cultivators, you would not even be worthy to be my student. But the world outside is different,"
“You want me to go to the demon lands, a place without cultivation and survive so that I will grow not only in strength but in experience,” Ed said as though agreeing with Tie Nse. Even though he couldn’t care less about his fighting strength, it was necessary in this world. He may just be aiming for the power to leave this world, but he had to survive in it too. Here, strength was everything.
“Not only that. In the Demon Lands is where I first saw something that is of the same origin as the Baju Valley, the Hell tree,” Tie Nse said and Ed frowned.
“It was very beneficial to the demon tribe that used to exist there, though not by much, but it emitted the same combined energies as the Baju Valley. Of course, I could only sense it. I could not feel it. It did not force people to absorb it like in the Baju valley, though people still died there, so I do not know at what concentration,”
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“Do I need to keep using these kinds of places to level up?” Ed said worriedly. He was not worried about the energy. He was only worried about the amount of energy it took for his strength to rise.
“Boy, though speeding up one's cultivation is not best, you probably already have a target on your back, so we have to at least try. Those places are the fastest ways for now. Besides, the Demon Land is a place where you could gain some fruitful encounters,” Tie Nse understood Ed's concerns. If it took this many rare materials and rare sacred grounds to raise him, one day they will run out of ideas.
“Luck is part of strength too, you think?” Ed said.
“There is no such thing as luck. Those that have fruitful encounters must have done something in their past lives to earn it. Say, boy, seeing how odd you are, I wonder if you did great evil or great good in your past lives,” Tie Nse said. This boy was too abnormal. Was this good fortune of heavenly punishment? Tie Nse sighed.
“You talked about soul realization. How far is it from God Eater stage?” Ed asked curiously. He need to know where he was going. But his question caused Tie Nse to frown.
“Boy, I have never heard of anything above the soul residence stage. There are children's tales explaining the realms and lands. They talk about those who reach a stage called god eaters. But no one really believes such people exist. After all, the lands explained in children's tales are done for their enjoyment. They are not fact,” Tie Nse said.
“So, you are saying there are no such things as the Unknown Lands?” Ed frowned.
“Yes. Boy, you must stop reading children's tales,”
“What about the mortal lands? The physical plane? Deranox? Jurazel? Emerald?” Ed was starting to panic.
“Emerald and Jurazel? Boy, what did you read?” Tie Nse's frown deepened.
“When I came to this world, I would sometimes ask about Emerald, and they told me of names of old kings. Kings that have already passed. Dead. Gone. When I asked someone else, they told me about kings I have never heard of. How did the people here know of these things if there is no such place?” Ed said anxiously.
“You speak of the physical planes? The physical planes have been locked from the world since the heavenly calamity. News of the mortal world never filters here,” Tie Nse frowned and Ed went silent. His head was bowed, hiding his face.
Tie Nse had in fact heard of these places. But this was from ancient text from long before the heavenly calamity. Since he had met this boy till now, this was the first time he had shown any true reaction, not to talk of one of this magnitude.
Ed remembered the text had said the Unknown Lands was a place outside and inside time. He understood that the mist was considered part of the Unknown Lands. If he is in the mist, then there is no way this old pervert will know of these places. But those people who had told him of this were real. This only meant that he could interact with people across planes. Doesn't that mean that some of the people he comes across are not people Tie Nse will see or be able to interact with? Ed frowned.
Tie Nse saw as Ed looked up, his eyes had calmed and regained their blank look.
“The way you talk about these places, it is as though you have been there before,” he asked.
“It does not matter. About the cultivation levels, tell me, how many stages are there before the soul residence stage?” Ed asked. Tie Nse let the topic rest and answered.
“After the spirit picking, there is the spirit awakening stage, spirit merging stages, spirit awareness stage, soul seeking stage, soul awakening stage, soul realization stage, heaven seeking stage, then the soul residence stage. The soul residence stage is only known. No one has reached this stage since the heavenly calamity,” Tie Nse said and Ed nodded. He took out a ring and threw it to Ed. Ed caught it and saw it was a spatial ring. It was much larger than the inner space one gets when they start training and it was filled with things.
He gave Tie Nse a puzzled look.
“So that no one would say your master sent you into the Demon Lands empty-handed,” Tie Nse said, snapping his fingers and Ed vanished before he could respond.
Ed had only blinked when he suddenly found himself in the middle of a sand storm.