Far away, in another Great Realm beyond the Gap, a young girl with blue hair was struggling to climb the Crushed Sword Mountain, hoping to find someone or something to save her family.

It was a distant hope, as the girl was already freezing due to the mountain's altitude and unhospitable terrain. Yet, still she climbed, crawling over sharp edges and frozen boulders, uncaring about the trail of blood and tears in her wake. It was painful and hard, yet still she climbed.

Stuck inside one such boulder, a certain sword in the shape of a ruler was arguing with the glove clenching the handle. 'It is your fault. You said we should use the Piercing Bridge!'

'Did I tell you to use 30 percent power? You knew 11 percent was the most Pef could survive...' the glove muttered a bit disappointed.

'He had survived much worse before...I thought...' the Heart Dividing Ruler explained in a subdued tone.

'Nevermind that now. We need to return. Let me see what we can use. Firstly, we need a user.' the glove continued in a more level voice, as it scanned the nearby mountain for some creature to carry them away.

If it had eyes, the orange glove would have blinked in surprise, as a tiny hand touched the boulder they were stuck in.

"...Heavens, please help me! I'd do anything to rescue my family." a tiny voice whispered as the girl began climbing over this rock.

'Open your mouth girl, and swallow this pill.' an alien voice demanded while invading her tired mind.

Too tired to think of consequences, the girl slowly opened her mouth and a powerful Ascension pill covered in an eternal lightning cloud entered.

'Welcome to the Legion, young Soldier' the voice continued as the girl fell in a deep sleep and an invisible glove covered her hand.

Over the Sword Mountains range, a terrible tribulation cloud began to gather, immense violet energy swirling inside. Yet, after a second the cloud encountered an invisible force and scattered away, while a giant sword emerged from the boulder and carried the sleeping girl away, back to her home village.

"The time limit has passed, ignorant fools. If you don't pay the tribute, your lives are worthless to the Serpent King" the leader of the army boomed, his voice enhanced with Wind Qi.

'Arms and legs for now. We can always kill them later.' the glove ordered as they descended among the armored warriors besieging the mountain village.

A single flash of sword qi struck a hundred men at once, disarming them rather conveniently.

At the same time, the sleeping girl trembled for a second, and was instantly covered with a golden glow as her transformation continued.

'Huh? It is her after all.' the glove muttered in real surprise.

'You know this user, Captain?' the ruler asked a bit confused.

'Not this one. But in a former life, Lara Xi was a Major in the Legion. Died in the Rock Worm attack on the Perimeter. Inside the Mirror Realm' the glove explained while reviewing the Soldier's military record.

'Seems rather convenient. Seeing as we landed at random after we traversed millions of universes...' the Heart Ruler said in a suspicious tone.

'Nothing is truly random when the Mirror is involved. This girl is at the right age after all.' the glove answered while comparing the genetic markers of the user's with their travel time logs.

'We shall see. I don't have the habit of letting just anyone handle me.' the ruler grumbled in a morose tone.

"Little Lara, what have you done? We are so dead now..." the village's elder wailed as the surrounding army fell to the ground, lacking limbs yet strangely not bleeding out.

"You are rebelling! The Serpent King will obliterate your entire village, and dig out your ancestors from their graves, not even your dogs will remain intact." the leader threatened while gathering his Wind Qi to float himself upright.

Another flash of light struck the floating cripple in his dantian, making him fall face first into the dirt, bereft of cultivation.

A strange calm fell over the mountains, as the girl still slept unconcerned while her wounds healed at a visible pace.

A woman dressed in furs hesitantly made her way towards the flying sword. "Mighty sword, can I have my young daughter back? She ran from the village last night..." the woman pleaded as she fell to her knees.

'Well? Mighty Sword?' an ironic voice added on the Legion network.

'Fine! She'll need to grow up a bit before we can return anyway.' the Heart Ruler answered with a grumbling tone, while it gently turned to unload the sleeping girl into her mother's arms.

Then the ruler flew towards the fallen enemies and began bonking them on the head with its handle, taking only a few minute to complete the task.

'As I suspected. A demonic cultivator with a dreg of looters and rapists for an army. We shall show them Mercy.' the glove concluded after reading their enemies' minds.

Another sword qi ray flashed, this time decapitating the crippled enemies. The glove had a somewhat terrible idea of what mercy meant.

-------------------

"Make it hotter, Grandpa! You're boiling tea after all." young Pef demanded while sitting on the table.

His mother, Rena was being boiled alive inside a bathtub filled with spirit tea, while the blue flames of the Grand Elder provided the heat.

"This seems so cruel..." the Supreme Master whispered with a small tremor in his voice.

"And you, fly guy! Just focus to open the sapphire stone. I want a storage ring already!" Pef exclaimed while turning towards the Sky Ranked Master who sat at the table next to him.

"..." the fly guy closed his mouth and struggled to contain himself, while straining his soul to open a pocket universe that massed more than a mountain. The stone barely massed a few grams in this world though.

'Damn invisible mass...I wish I remembered what that meant.' Pef grumbled inward while he kept an eye on his new team. Still, his memories rarely lead him wrong, although they sometimes conflicted with each other, especially when they regarded metals and other mundane objects.

'Why do I have two separate sets of disparate memories? Even if I got reborn somehow, there should be only one. And the sad thing, I can't even ask anyone to explain. These morons know far less than I do.' he continued to mutter inward, sometimes stopping to listen for advice from a voice that should be there, but wasn't.

'Oh well. Nine rings at first, and then one to rule them all. I remember this clearly.' Pef concluded as he smiled grandly.

In the room, the other members of the group shivered at the smile, as they suspected the little blonde devil had even worse plans in his evil mind.

With a silent pop, Rena relaxed into the boiling tea water all the sudden, as she crossed into the Earth Realm and her durability now far outmatched mere boiling temperature.

Pef only grinned wider. "Well done, Holy Mother. I'll have to think of something else now, for the next ascension. Grandpa is much too weak as he is anyways."

The old man grimaced at the thought, as being boiled alive was already quite unpleasant. No matter how much he wished to reach Sky Realm, perhaps something more normal like a pill would be better...