•••

All Duan Yan could do was whimper when he stared at his now disabled hand, although it could be healed through medicine, it would still take a few months thus slowing down his cultivation and practice speed.

Duan Yan’s eyes became red with hatred as he stared at the masked figure before him, at the same time fear formed within him.

Duan Yan began to coalesce his Qi around himself, his World-Coalescing Realm cultivation base stirring up the surroundings, placing pressure on the spectators. When his eyes met the masked man before him, his soul quaked; before those magenta eyes, he felt so small and weak.

“Astrallis, it seems he can’t even take a single glance from your eyes. The pure soul power of your Astral God blood makes you emit soul energy subconsciously, do you think his mind would break if you attacked with soul energy?” Bataar snickered into Astrallis’ ears.

“It’s only because his will is weak, that I’m able to influence him,” Astrallis said in disdain.

Astrallis stared at the crazed figure before him.

“It’s your lucky day; it’s unbecoming of me to spill any more blood before Princess Eversnow,” Astrallis coldly said to Duan Yan.

Astrallis let go of Duan Yan’s wrist, but not before he sent Duan Yan flying with a punch, his body rolling across the ground.

“How dare you!?” Shouted a middle-aged man from Duan Yan’s entourage, as he managed to snap out of his inundated state.

The pressure of a Minting Stage cultivation base descended on Astrallis, causing Astrallis’ bones to creak.

“Oh, this idiot has the protection of a Minting Stage cultivator,” Astrallis thought as he stared at the middle-aged man.

Astrallis stared nonchalantly at the man, his gait never weakening, in fact, it only became straighter.

The World-Creation Realm is the final realm within the World Stage, in this realm, the comprehensions of the cultivator culminate into a world inside their dantians – a world formed by understandings, it holds all the laws of the cultivator. The Minting Stage after that is divided into four realms; each realm helps forge the inner-world of the cultivator making it stronger and firmer, allowing for more power and higher comprehension.

Currently, Astrallis was only in the World Wandering Realm, which is the first realm of the World Stage. World Coalescing Realm comes after the World Wandering Realm, which is followed by the final domain of the World Stage which is the World Creation Realm. Astrallis has the archaic blood of the Astral God, the tremendous soul energy that has flowed through his blood since his birth has tempered his will and soul hence why the middle-aged man's aura had no effect on Astrallis' soul-being.

At the same time, Astrallis cultivates the heavenly Sanguinary Felicity Body-Art, a person who duo cultivates both essence and body cultivation is rare as a phoenix feather and unicorn horn. The number of factions in the universe that have a body cultivation technique, that doesn’t interfere with essence cultivation, can be counted on one hand; the Felicity Blood Religion is one such faction.

A person who duo cultivates both body and essence goes against the heavens. It takes much more for them to break through to higher realms, at the same time their cultivation speed may not be as fast as a practitioner that only cultivates essence, but there are always pros and cons. A person who duo cultivates body and essence can generally fight a few grades above themselves; their battle-power defies the heavens.

Astrallis was, even more, a freak of nature, his Sanguinary Felicity Body-Art had a mutation in its invocation, both from the unique Yin feature of the art as well as the Astral Blood within his body. This lead to his physical body having manifold more strength compared to a standard body cultivator.

The most central feature that allows Astrallis to fight multiple grades above himself relates to the soul energy of his Astral Blood.[1]

Astrallis’ will never faltered when the overbearing pressure of the middle-aged man descended. The man became embarrassed when he noticed that the masked figure was even younger than his Young Master.

“Boy, do you know who you are messing with? He is Duan Yan one of the Young Masters of the Duan Clan,” the middle-aged retainer tried to scare Astrallis, hoping for at least some reaction.

There finally was a reaction from Astrallis, but not the one the retainer was hoping for.

“What’s the Duan Clan?” Astrallis voice spread around the area, traces of mirth contained within.

•••

The faces of the crowd all became odd.

“Does this youth not know the immensity of heaven and earth? How does he not know the Duan Clan?”

“A young calf is the most fearless.”

“Well, did you see the prowess of this young man? He must surely come from some large faction; he’s most likely putting on airs in front of this Duan Clan entourage.”

The spectators all discussed as they watched this odd confrontation.

•••

Astrallis listened to the comments around him, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. He really didn’t know who this Duan Clan is; there are so many factions within the Astral Realm they could even be called innumerable. Although the Seven Dawns Imperial Kingdom could be called a Tier One powerhouse, only below the four Holy Lands, Astrallis never bothered to learn about the empires around him.

Cultivation and the advancement in the Way is his only goal, an almost single-minded devotion.

A soothing giggle entered the ears of everyone, they all turned to the source of the noise and saw Princess Eversnow joyfully laughing. Her eyes bright with amusement as she stared at the masked man.

“Mister, you really do not know the Duan Clan?” Princess Ever snow asked Astrallis.

“I indeed do not Princess, and I wouldn’t have even known who you are if everyone wasn’t talking about you,” Astrallis cheekily replied.

His response made everyone begin to shuffle on the feet, a single thought when through their minds, “How can he talk so casually to the Princess?”

Princess Eversnow’s eyes only became brighter when she heard the way Astrallis spoke to her; there was no flattering or infatuation in the voice, only one of mild teasing.

As one of the top talents of the Empire as well as a Princess this type of speech is something she could only hear from a few people; most people were afraid of her background and didn’t dare to appear talk so casually with her.

The old granny behind Eversnow smiled cheerfully when she noticed the happy response from Eversnow. The old lady also felt sad for her Young Mistress as she knew the one thing she lacked the most was a group of people that didn’t see her just for her status. Although she had a group of female friends, no man dared talk to her in such a way.

This was a new experience for Princess Eversnow.

“What is your name Mister?” Eversnow asked.

“Astrallis, I see you have the Seven-Life Snow Lily innate constitution. No wonder you are such a benevolent lady,” Astrallis told her, his words having deeper connotations that at face-value.

The Princess and her old retainer had dumbstruck faces as they looked at Astrallis, the information about her innate constitution is classified information known only by a select few in the Seven Dawns Royal Court. They stumbled upon this information when a eunuch was reading some old canons and noticed the similarities of Eversnow to the descriptions in the text, after a few tests they concluded that she had the Seven-Life Snow Lily innate constitution. This information was immediately sealed, and she became the bright pearl in the eyes of the head honchos of the Royal Court.

“Goodbye your Highness, I need to enter the city now,” Astrallis gave a light bow of parting as he began to move away.

“That fatty just vanished, he’s somewhat peculiar. Anyway, my words should have sparked some interest in the Princess; I’ll most likely be able to form a connection with her now, such a relationship will be crucial during my stay in the Seven Dawns Imperial Kingdom.” Astrallis inwardly ruminated as he began walking to the entrance of the city.

“Wait, where do you think you’re going?” The retainer of the Duan Clan shouted as he moved towards Astrallis.

The shout from the Duan Clan retainer woke up the stunned Princess, her features immediately became stern, and she shouted “What do you think you’re doing? This man is my friend; I’d like to see if your Duan Clan dares to touch him!”

The Duan Clan retainer immediately stopped in his tracks; everyone almost fell over hearing the Princess’s words.

The granny behind Eversnow gently shook her head and inwardly grumbled, “It seems everyone has noticed that even the Princess can be shameless at times, she’s always been mischievous. Her pranks are known throughout the royal court; but no one dislikes her, her benevolence is ever apparent to anyone who meets her.”

The Duan Clan retainer turned to the Princess, not daring to look at her in the eyes. “Your Highness he has grievously assaulted my Young Master, I can’t let him go without any repercussions. What about the face of our Duan Clan?” The man indignantly asked.

“It’s alright Princess, I can deal with this, I did cause it myself anyway,” Astrallis’ said as he turned to look at the retainer.

•••