The Cloud Swallowing Thunder Eel that brought him to this planet was only able to carry those who weren’t yet Nascent Souls. Or at least, that’s what he’d been told. It was the reason why they’d sent a team of youngsters into the Hidden Domain and not a few of the Thundercloud Sect’s strongest members. If he were to advance, then how would he be able to get home?

One fire at a time.

Releasing his final reservation, he immersed himself into that new sensation. That new connection, the one that signified a new path opening up before him. Removing the barrier that led to a greater unity with the universe.

It felt as if his consciousness had just dove into a pool of icy water, completely engulfed and shocked by the sudden change. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, but with time he grew accustomed to the new state and that painful coldness became more of a refreshing coolness. It wasn’t actually cold, this was his consciousness after all and not his sense of touch. That was just the best analogy he had for the feeling that came over him. It was far more intense than the previous law he’d comprehended. The first time it had been more of a relief. Searching for some sort of respite from the poison raging through his body, he tried to connect with the Minor Law of Venom, but the poisons that Guan Zhenyan used were so powerful that the Law he connected with was actually the Major Law of Poison. A venom was the poison produced by a beast or insect and they usually only came in a few flavors of varying intensities. Poison on the other hand incorporated any number of other substances that could affect living beings.

Yet, he’d now managed to burst into a completely new stage. A higher one. A poison beyond poisons. He feared that he’d merely found another Minor Law, something related to transformation, mutation, or detrimental change. Instead, he’d found a light in the darkness and he felt the connection with the very essence of poison. What was a poison? Something that caused harm, injury, or death to organs. What about things that weren’t alive? Could a person poison the ground? It was a difficult question. Certainly poisons existed that could wait in the ground and then transfer to plants grown in that ground, and then enter the body once those plants were consumed. Yet, the soil and dirt were still intact. Could a rock be poisoned? What about the sky? Many things could act as a medium, but poison could not harm things that weren’t alive.

A vicious and powerful urge rippled through Sage’s consciousness as he learned how very overbearing the new Law he’d understood could be. The power to poison anything! No, it wasn’t poison. It was greater than that. The very idea of a poison originated from it.

Corruption.

He got a glimpse of other facets of the Law, things like infection, contamination, toxin, acid, and corrosion among many others. Yet, it also covered other things like hallucination, deception, and mutation. He realized now the difference between mutation and transformation. A transformation was controlled, or directed in its changes. Mutation on the other hand was chaotic. Random change that aligned with the concept of corruption. That energy rampaging through his body had been mutational, not transformational. He hadn’t realized the difference before, but now it was obvious to him.

The Law of Corruption was not a Minor or Major Law, it was a Primal Law. A step above the Major Law of Poison. It was the same tier as pairs of opposing laws, like Light and Dark, Good and Evil, or Fire and Water. Comprehending two opposing Major Laws would lead to a Primal Law of duality, but there was also another type of Primal Law: Universal Laws.

Gravity. Time. Space.

Corruption was another like them. Not just poisoning an organ, it was far more all encompassing. Any sort of detrimental change caused by something else could fall under the umbrella of the Law of Corruption. Excessive rainfall could corrupt the stability of the ground and cause landslides or sinkholes. Years of exposure to full sunlight could fade wood and fabrics, corrupting their colors. Lobbyists and constant criticism could corrupt the views of Politicians. Even the constant misuse of a word by many people would corrupt the original definition of it. The Primal Law of Corruption went beyond simply harming physical bodies, it could even taint thoughts and feelings, or even subtly influence whole societies.

Stepping over the threshold and comprehending the first degree of a Primal Law was a momentous event. While Sage wasn’t aware of it, in the outside world there was a huge uproar. To the Flares that were watching the battle from outside the perimeter they saw their ‘boss’ getting thrown away after clashing with that giant snake. Then, a huge ball of fire had rocketed over and bathed the snake in flames. Shortly after the ball of fire engulfed the snake, it multiplied in size. It put the term ‘bonfire’ to shame. A raging inferno the size of an apartment complex, it towered tens of feet into the air and released violent waves of heat.

After a few minutes their giant boss was finally extracted from where he’d been hurled into the trench and after recovering he didn’t dare enter the perimeter. Since their boss didn’t dare to approach, none of the Flares would either. After so many of them had been poisoned so terribly before, the rest of them were not eager in the least to suffer the same fate. They were even less inclined to go near the fire that was currently burning on that huge snake, yet somehow not consuming it.

The fire raged for nearly an hour, getting larger and larger as time passed. Suddenly, there was a change. The sky above them started to swirl, moving faster and faster until a funnel of dark air fell downwards. None of them knew what was going on, but all of the Flares kept their distance and braced themselves. The smarter ones even built fortifications with their psychic abilities, or just dug holes to hide in. Unlike how it looked, there was no gust of air, or burst of wind. The dark funnel that fell down to the flame didn’t seem to be wind or air. They could only guess at what sort of energy it might be, the funnel piercing through the flames and falling onto the body of the huge cobra. Yet, there was no further earth shaking occurrence. The dark energy just funneled down to the cobra and disappeared, while more of it swirled in the sky and continuously poured down.

Back inside Sage’s body.

With his understanding of a Primal Law, Sage could sense power flooding into his body. While he couldn’t control his body properly, he could still drive his Qi and with the influence of a Primal Law he could drive his cultivation towards the next level. The nebula within his Dantian began to move faster and faster. The dark energy that was pouring in from the outside traveled through his meridians and into his dantian. As it reached that internal nebula it disappeared and the many celestial bodies flared with life. The many small motes of light that made up the distant stars grew brighter. The sun flashed with power and even the core of the Internal World bubbled. A few volcanoes erupted and spewed magma into the world. The heat of the sun caused wildfires and boiled away some of the water. Storms raged and violet weather dominated the world. Sage’s breakthrough caused a calamity for those who lived in the Inner World.

Sage’s Spiritual Sea began to tremble.

The flame giant sensed something was amiss and quickly turned around. A wall of dark sea water stretched into the sky, nearly touching the clouds above. It was crashing towards the giant with unstoppable force.

Suddenly terrified, the huge column of flame from the sky was retracted, and the flame giant fled. It flashed through the sky at its top speed, no longer showing the arrogance of walking on the water. It seemed to be fleeing for its life, retreating the borders of the Spiritual Sea and darting out into that grey fog. A few moments after it left the huge wave smashed against the wall of the Spiritual Sea, the impact shaking the whole place and causing parts of the already half melted fortress to collapse. Then the wave spilled backwards, washing over the Spiritual Sea once again. Thankfully, when the wave passed by each time, the fortress on the lone island seemed unharmed. The water crashed against the walls without causing any damage.

It’s gone! Time for the real deal!