Yao Shen effortlessly flew through the sky, his speed purposely limited to allow Elder Han to keep pace with himself. His mood was complex— five parts ponderous, three parts melancholic and two parts uncertain. The path he had set the Heavenly Sky Sect on could not be reversed, or his weight as the leader, the Patriarch, would no longer have any meaning. Edicts once issued, could no longer be reversed nearly as easily. It was not a matter of martial strength, but of prestige, of face— even a cultivator as powerful as himself could not repress the entirety of the Azlak Plains by himself.

Still, he was now a Soul Emperor, a fact that he still found hard to believe. The stages of cultivation in Eliria were divided into five major tiers, of which he was currently at the second tier.

The first tier was the ‘Physical’, also commonly known as the ‘Mortal’ tier. There were three stages in the Physical tier, namely, ‘Qi Refinement’, ‘Foundation Building, and finally ‘Core Formation’. All three stages focused on refining the physical body, remodeling the body as a vessel to bear the pressure of qi, expanding the meridians, and finally, evolving the ‘Dantian’, which was the metaphysical center of a cultivator’s qi reserve and the organ that partly determined a cultivator’s talent.

Each stage had benefits or boons, that a cultivator unlocked, as well as certain objectives they had to achieve to have a good chance at ascension:

The first stage of cultivation, namely the Qi Refinement stage gives a mortal the ability to channel Qi both internally and externally. To progress, the cultivator had to attune Qi to at least one natural element.

The second stage of cultivation, namely the foundation establishment stage gave a cultivator the ability to fly, albeit only for a limited time with the help of a flying artifact. To progress, one had to establish a ‘foundation platform’ based upon the element the cultivator had attuned.

The third stage of cultivation, namely the core formation stage gives a cultivator flexibility, since guarding the dantian, which governs the flow of Qi within the body, is no longer a consideration— the cultivator’s core, which is created through melding the foundational platform into a perfect core, can be shifted throughout the body. To evolve to the next stage, at least one minor dao must be comprehended.

Of course, there were a lot more benefits, but Yao Shen mentally highlighted some points in his mind as he tried to look at it from his unique perspective, as a denizen of Earth. The next tier was the ‘Soul’ tier, which focused on refining the soul, to allow it to bear the growing burden of the power the refined body now possessed. The ‘Soul’ tier again had three stages, ‘Nascent Soul’, ‘Soul Emperor’, ‘Soul Paragon’.

The fourth stage of cultivation, namely Nascent Soul Stage removed the largest vulnerability a core formation cultivator possessed— detonating the perfect core to create a Nascent Soul. To evolve to the next stage, the cultivator must fuse minor daos with at least one major dao and form a ‘Domain’— an imposition on one’s will over the heavenly law.

The fifth stage of cultivation, namely Soul Emperor, imparted the cultivator ‘heavenly guidance’ upon ascension and evolved three Minor Dao’s to the Major Dao threshold as a reward for success.

As for the sixth unfathomable level of cultivation, namely Soul Paragon, was something Yao Shen possessed no knowledge about— except two words, ‘Dao Path’.

The Sect Records seemed to indicate that the first tier was merely an initiation phase, and even a late-stage core formation cultivator was not considered to have stepped on the ‘true’ path of cultivation. The evaluation for the second tier was higher, but even then, they were regarded more as generals that led first tier cultivators into battle, while the true battle took place in the ‘void’, between third tier cultivators and higher. These records did not belong to their own sect, of course, but were ancient recordings recovered from ruins that predated their generation by tens of thousands of years, but it was still frightening to consider that his two hundred years of cultivation only amounted to… someone who was not even considered close to a peak power in ancient time.

Well, at least he had the next eight hundred years to figure out how to reach the Soul Paragon stage, though he doubted he would receive an answer in the Azlak Plains. In actuality, their region had been in decline for thousands of years, and that was one reason why he hoped to win the Council of Elders through diplomacy over sheer force.

Yao Shen was in a position where he could easily choose to leave the sect and take his disciples, in search of the secret to Soul Paragon stage, but he was instead choosing to stay. He was like a symbol for a new dawn upon the Azlak Plains, one that inspired even the weakest and the most talentless of cultivators and forced the legacy families to adapt, or be left behind by the new era.

Geographically speaking, the Azlak plains were located on the Ionea Continent, the seventh and also the weakest continent on Eliria. From his understanding based on the sect records, other continents had multiple fourth-step cultivators in existence, and they had not suffered as terribly from the Era of Turmoil.

In the far eastern corner of Ionea lay the small, forgotten, Azlak Plains, protected from the horrors of the coastal region by the ancient formation that had defended Ionea from the harsh elements for thousands of years.

To the far north lay the Dwarven Mountain Range, shielded by generations upon generations of layered formations constructed by harnessing the natural qi and aura of the mountains. Another reason why the road to cultivation had been unkind to Yao Shen was his race, as a human. The Dwarves had a natural attunement to Earth Qi, and it was rare to find one that could not achieve one of the numerous Minor Dao of Earth within their lifespans. That did not mean that all of them could reach the coveted Nascent Soul level, but core formation was not a hard feat for Dwarves. An affinity to Earth, however, was also a shackle, for many Dwarves failed to break free from their reliance upon a single element and limited their potential in that manner.

The west was dominated by dozens of righteous path sects, the terrain oscillating wildly from a land of wintry frost to a desert full of endless, roiling sands, the environment attuned to the preference of the dominant sects in the regions.

The center was a land full of horrors and mystery, inheritances and traps, the home and the territory of the Demonic Sects on Ionea, the battlefield where the grand war of the Era of Turmoil was fought, where the blood of tens of thousands of peak cultivators was shed and clans and sects alike were extinguished for all of eternity— The Bloodsoul Forest. Dark Elves, Vampires, the Undead Alliance, and even human cultivators that were practitioners of the blood, soul, and other forbidden paths, were only a sampling of the terrors that rested there.

To the south, were their greatest Allies, the True Elves, the children of the forest. The Elves belonged to neither the righteous path nor the demonic path, maintaining a principle of neutrality through strength. The death of non-allied human mortals was not something they concerned themselves with, belonging to an entirely different species.

Indeed, past agreements had been made with the righteous path, but in the end, it had always been the hypocrisy of the righteous path that let them down in their times of need and eventually forced them to cut ties. The Elves had a far greater natural blessing than the dwarves, but their race was restricted by a far lower birth rate. The Dwarves outnumbered the elves ten to one, while humans outnumbered the dwarves perhaps, a thousand to one.

A True Elf had a natural attunement to nature itself, which included the earth, light, fire, water, and so on. Thankfully, the nature of their attunement was inferior to the Dwarves in a single element of Earth Qi, but it was easy to understand why the might of the elves was so widely feared and why the Dark Elves hated their cousins with such ferocity.

The Azlak Plains may be a poor region resource-wise, but if there was one thing they had it was a land blessed by nature. Well, the elves couldn't truly be termed as allies— they cared not for who ruled Azlak Plains, their only requirement that the flora and fauna in the region not be destroyed beyond a certain threshold. For one could find many young elves roaming the Azlak Plains, further attuning themselves with aspects of nature that were not, or perhaps no longer, available in Elvenhold.

Of course, the East did not belong to the Azlak Plains alone. There were a total of five major righteous territories in the East, that inadvertently acted as a shield for the Azlak Plains from the Demonic Sects. That did not preclude them from sending cultivators for regional defense, but the pact that had been formed after the Era of Turmoil by the major powers of Ionea was not easily broken.

After all, both sides had lost simply too much due to the conflict, their inheritances were incomplete, and legacies shattered. Each of the major powers in the East had one peak second tier cultivator, at the very least. Azlak Plains did not count as a major power of the East, but with multiple early second-tier cultivators, it was not a negligible one either. Their position might seem quite comfortable on paper, but the reality was seldom reflective of theory.

The Elves had a symbiotic relationship with them, but they would never break their neutrality treaty for them unless half of Azlak Plains was reduced to charred ash.

On the other hand, the Demonic Sects were many things, but united was not one of them— not only the Azlak Plains, but the Elves themselves were continuously tested. Each year, they would kill a few young elves, only to have thousands of undead destroyed in vicious retribution. But the Demonic Path did not care about such trivial losses, continually testing their response time, power, and growth.

Elvenhold was a very isolated territory that was very difficult to spy upon, thus the need to continually probe for weakness— the demonic sect did not lack in shrewdness or cunning, their schemes running deep in both cruelty and corruption.

Azlak Plains was used as both a training ground and a place to conduct heinous rituals that involved mortals. Their countermeasures had improved over the years, but the fact was that it was simply too easy for a cultivator with the intent to destroy mortal holdings. Villages and mortal holdings had continuously moved closer to one of the sects, but some were stubborn in their ways or simply refused to believe the claims of cultivators even when recording stones were used to show them the aftermath of the devastation.

The Elves in reality were more a deterrent than an ally, and Azlak Plains simply did not have enough resources for any of the major eastern sects to risk angering their silent wrath. It was as much a prison as it was a shield, which is why the Eastern Sects pitied them rather than look onward in jealousy— for, in the world of cultivation, opportunity was everything.

Each hegemon, namely the True Elves, the Dwarves, the Righteous Path of the West, and the Demonic Sect Alliance had at least one third tier cultivator. The East had no third tier cultivator, but the Pact and the legacy constructs inherited from the Era of Turmoil and their alliance with the Western Righteous Path Alliance prevented the demonic sect from overstepping their boundaries.

The continent of Ionea was a powder keg that could be lit afire at any moment, but it had attained balance in its own twisted way.

And that was without factoring in the three mysterious races into the equation— The Ancient Dragons, The Fae-Blessed and….. the third unknown race, all records of their existence had been purged from their Sect Records, but their existence itself not forgotten.

In this chaotic landscape, would his new approach be able to sway the reclusive true elves, known for their love for the arts and refinement? It was an alliance that would align with his valu-

“Grand Patriarch?” Elder Han’s voice cut off his train of thought abruptly, but he did not blame him. For they had arrived at their destination.